The great escape

[Hammer man]

As some of you know,i pride myself in my machine skills,safety record,work ability & machine upkeep,& i dont take risks.By which i mean that if i dont feel 100% safe doing a job,I DONT DO IT.(& my company has had a few calls from hirers about me refusing to do a job as I dont feel safe.Full back up from my firm )But....
They had a blast in my normal quarry in Somerset that was beside the main haul road down the side of the quarry.It blocked to road down to levels 4-9,& the water pumps in the bottom.They had stopped working so they needed to get to them.They asked for my help (more work for me)
The 55t 954 has gone over the top of the blast pile to make an access road for me,so i could get to the other side & make an access road/path down the other side,about 70ft from the top of the pile to the haul road below.Everything was going well,i was working my way down making a nice slope & adding material(?)as i went to make a nice long road.I was nice & stable on my 350,facing downhill making good progress.
I had to track back so i could push the pile/bund out in front of me & progress down further.As i went to track back,my tracks sliped.That was it
My machine started to slide foward,i slammed by bucket teeth into the slope with no luck.With my tracks spinning backwards,i went forwards,crashing down 40ft of blast pile with the arm & bucket folding in so far under the undercarrige i thought the the arm ram would pull apart.I landed on the pile of oversize at the base of the pile beached with it under my cross frame.For what seemed like ages but was only about 5 secs i was a passenger with no control.I knew i was`nt going over the face to the side,as i was heading for the bottom of the road in front of me.But i`ve never been so scared in my life
I had my seat belt on,& had done this job many a time before.Had a few small slips when trying to get over rock,but never anything like this.
It took me 3 hrs to build the road from the bottom up & get back to the top.All my confidance(?)had gone,& i was a nervous wreck
No damage at all to my digger or me(except my nerves).
I`ve gone over what i did & happend.I reckon as i tracked backwards,my triple grousers caught a piece of rock allowing it to slip,which started the momentom.
Needless to say,i`ve gone very steady since,& tell my wife i love her very much when i leave for work

[d4c24a]

did you get any brown adrenalin
nearly as good as an alton towers ride
i have only had one scare that did shake me a bit ,and that was nearly getting buried in a trench fall

[IANOZ]

Hi Neil , Sounds like it could have been narsty , Good to here man and machine are OK . ian .

[Hammer man]

OH YES Very brown trousers afterwards
I`ve had a few moments before when you think,oops,should`nt have done that.But never as bad as this.
Still,managed to get ramp done in the end.Could track up & down no problem.Too steep for wheeled vehicals,but at least they can get to the water pumps to start draining level 9 for me.There must be about 5 meters deep of water in there,& 2 weeks of breaking the oversize.

[stock]

As some of you know,i pride myself in my machine skills,safety record,work ability & machine upkeep,& i dont take risks.By which i mean that if i dont feel 100% safe doing a job,I DONT DO IT.(& my company has had a few calls from hirers about me refusing to do a job as I dont feel safe.Full back up from my firm )But....
They had a blast in my normal quarry in Somerset that was beside the main haul road down the side of the quarry.It blocked to road down to levels 4-9,& the water pumps in the bottom.They had stopped working so they needed to get to them.They asked for my help (more work for me)
The 55t 954 has gone over the top of the blast pile to make an access road for me,so i could get to the other side & make an access road/path down the other side,about 70ft from the top of the pile to the haul road below.Everything was going well,i was working my way down making a nice slope & adding material(?)as i went to make a nice long road.I was nice & stable on my 350,facing downhill making good progress.
I had to track back so i could push the pile/bund out in front of me & progress down further.As i went to track back,my tracks sliped.That was it
My machine started to slide foward,i slammed by bucket teeth into the slope with no luck.With my tracks spinning backwards,i went forwards,crashing down 40ft of blast pile with the arm & bucket folding in so far under the undercarrige i thought the the arm ram would pull apart.I landed on the pile of oversize at the base of the pile beached with it under my cross frame.For what seemed like ages but was only about 5 secs i was a passenger with no control.I knew i was`nt going over the face to the side,as i was heading for the bottom of the road in front of me.But i`ve never been so scared in my life
I had my seat belt on,& had done this job many a time before.Had a few small slips when trying to get over rock,but never anything like this.
It took me 3 hrs to build the road from the bottom up & get back to the top.All my confidance(?)had gone,& i was a nervous wreck
No damage at all to my digger or me(except my nerves).
I`ve gone over what i did & happend.I reckon as i tracked backwards,my triple grousers caught a piece of rock allowing it to slip,which started the momentom.
Needless to say,i`ve gone very steady since,& tell my wife i love her very much when i leave for work

Very similar to a Mexican operator but he wasn't so lucky when the 330 excavator accident on the construction of the highway mexico-Tuxpam, the operator was Huauchinango died shortly after the accident .

[Martyn Henley]

Very similar to a Mexican operator but he wasn't so lucky when the 330 excavator accident on the construction of the highway mexico-Tuxpam, the operator was Huauchinango died shortly after the accident .

Is this accident Stock that you refer to ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPfkldzPQs

Nasty

Martyn