“It will only take a minute”, ..last words

[Unkel Kunkel]

With better weather coming, hopefully we will be out with,  and  almost certainly under our cars more ..

The following plea about working under cars might seem  very dull and boring, but in mitigation I say it is not about being risk-averse , it is about being  risk-aware , which is  a very different thing.

According to HSE in its March report, are the words “, It will only take a minute” are the words, sometimes the last words, of people who get injured whilst working on vehicles.

In the last 5 years in the UK. there have been 13 fatalities resulting  of vehicles  falling on top of  people.

I make no apologies for repeating my cautionary tale : As a young chap, I became trapped after very, very foolishly venturing under a GT6 after removing a rear wheel.It was supported only by a scissor jack on a paving stone which wobbled.. well you can guess the rest.It happened so  fast.

Now pinned face down, unable  to move and very aware that I was hardly able to breathe and it was getting rapidly worse,  I was approaching being just  another digit to be added to the 1976 list of similar fatalities, when miraculously  I was rescued by my  my young  wife.

She was fast,(reassuringly, she didn’t even pause to check the life policies)

So please, Be aware.Take a minute to be safe.

“You can’t have too many axle stands”

 

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Unkel Kunkel

[Pete Lewis]

we had a guy worked on the assy track  put his car up on bricks , one weekend  . on trying to remove the gearbox (FB Victor) it wobbled off and brick pile collapsed punctured the fuel tank and a parafin heater in his garage did the rest    he did not survive the inferno

its something i always remember  

your are correct to advise safety    more axle stands  well located and always poke the wheel you took off under the car 

you cannot be too careful    wise words    Take a minute to be safe      

Pete

[dougbgt6]

 My story is not so dramatic, I jacked my GT6 up in Dad's garage, went to the workbench for a spanner and CRASH! The jack  and car toppled sideways, car on the floor. I still have the scissor jack it sits on a shelf re-painted and unused these 40 years.

DO NOT TRUST A SCISSOR JACK.

Break open the wallet and buy a trolly jack and some axle stands

Doug

[johny]

Unfortunately for roadside repairs its got to be a sissor jack as carrying a trolley isnt really feasible but I do keep some Lidls folding axle stands in the boot as theyre very compact yet do the job👍