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A Sobering thought on safety & lessons learnt

Just had an incident happen in my life that really drove home the safety issues when working with any power tools.

A friend of mine died last week from a chainsaw accident.

Sadly it was not necessarily a fatal injury but because he was on his property by himself he bled out leaving two gorgeous angels 18 month and 4 years behind him.

What is it that I can take away from this tragedy to give it some meaning? Well re-assessing my own use of power tools for a start.
So first preference is use tools when there is someone in earshot I suppose. (Not that practical as I live on my own).

Second is take a phone out to the shed or where ever I'm working.

I looked around my shed and realise that if I did nic an artery I have not one clean piece of cloth out there that I could quickly put on to staunch bleeding if necessary & certainly nothing that could be used as a tourniquet. Over the coming weeks I'll go out to the shed and give it some more serious thought.
What practical things I can simply implement that pertain to my circumstances & put some plan in place. As much as I love my hobby I couldn't bear putting my family through the anquish I have witnessed in the last 10 days.

Tags: Power, Safety, Tools.

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Comment by Penny Nelson on February 13, 2013 at 5:59pm: Thanks guys,

We only have the buttons for seniors and its a private service. Jeremy ran a yard maintenance business for many years & was cleaning up his property after the Australia Day weekend storms we had here. He slipped aparently and nicked and artery. I think we all tend to be a bit lax on the safety issue especially when we are working in the home environment where we do not have OH & S policies and proceedures to stick to.
Has really driven home the need to be more attentive even when one is possibly more focussed on getting the build finished than safety issues. Regret is a horrible thing & usually avoidable...

Comment by ED (Bad Finger) on February 11, 2013 at 9:26am: Sorry to hear of the loss of your friend.

I grew up on a farm so awareness of danger all around started from the time I was 5 or so. Doesn't keep me from getting an appropriate screen name. Keeping a cool head in an emergency is an absolute. I don't like to use my chainsaw or any real power tools without someone else around. I'll use a hand drill or Dremel or something, but when I need a power saw, chain saw or the like I always make sure someone else knows what I'm up to. Extension ladders too. I was less careful before I had two daughters.

For CBGs, I really like to just use my hand tools. I'm not trying to make 100 in a week so it works well for me.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 11, 2013 at 9:16am: Penny,

Does your town support one of those emergency alert medallions / push button thingies that alerts the police, fire, sheriff? I know there are communities in the States that do this for the elderly. That was not a comment on your age, by the way. I'm just thinking that, living alone as you do, if you had some sort of necklace with one of those while out in the shop, if you, God forbid, did have a power tool accident, a simple button push could get a first responder to you quickly.

Comment by Bad Wolf on February 11, 2013 at 8:17am: sorry about your loss that is terrible

Comment by c# merle on February 11, 2013 at 7:33am: i've been around power tools all my adult life and seen a few fingers lost, but thankfully no fatalities.

a pet hate is people using tools with the guard taken off - bad idea and not macho in the slightest.

so sorry to hear this penny. safety is always a paramount with any tools, powered or not.

Comment by Reeds Taylor on February 11, 2013 at 6:50am: Its very sad too hear of your friends tragic accident. You are correct in pointing out safety issues, we as power tool users sometimes refuse too believe that anything bad could happen too a experienced crafts person. It only takes a second too prove us wrong. I myself have a first aid kit handy all the time, fortunately I also have a wife and a phone in my work room. These are very real issues that could happen too anyone of us.

Thank you for bringing it too our attention. Once again my wife and I send our sincere condolences too you, and your friends family.