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2011 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
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Don't Lean on the Glass!

2011 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

A good few years ago, my father was a manager of a small foundry and machine shop. As you can imagine, these buildings(two of them) were filled with various machines, things you would find for working metal and of course the metal itself. So, that brings us to the main story: The roof on one of the buildings needed work, so some people were hired to do this. The structure that was being worked on, the machine shop, was about 2 stories tall and was your standard steel framed and sided warehouse type building with windows high up and on the roof. On one day in particular, one of the workmen was there by himself to get some things done. However, there was absolutely no one else around, it was just him; the place was closed that day. Now, working up on a roof by yourself is not going to be the safest job, but shouldn't be terribly dangerous - if you take the proper precautions. As you can imagine, this is where the problem was. While up on the roof, our workman decided to lean against one of the windows; not the smartest idea given that they were not new and certainly did not look new. As you can imagine, the window gave way and in he went. "Lucky" for him, a catwalk railing about one story up helped break his fall before he landed all the way on the ground. He escaped from this with his only major injury being a basketball sized bruise on his back. The amazing thing here is that he managed to not land on something that could have impaled him or cut him bad enough to bleed out or hit his head or any number of other things; he was actually able to walk away from this. As mentioned above, this place had machinery and raw materials everywhere, stuff that could kill you if you landed on it. I remember walking around this place myself and seeing long welding rods sticking up into the air in one spot, as well as the fact that there was not alot of room to walk around, or in this case land from a fall through a roof window. I can not state enough how darned lucky he was, he didn't even break a bone. Now, you ask about those proper precautions? Well, the workmen were required to wear harnesses while on the roof but none of them did this even though they were available. My father said that they didn't like wearing them because they got in the way; he couldn't force them to either, given that he could not watch them the entire time they were up there to make sure they did. The kicker here though is that everyone working up on that roof was specifically told not to lean on those windows as the glass couldn't support any weight.

In the end this person talked about possibly sueing but nothing ever came of this. I know my father was certainly not happy when this happened but he definitly said he was amazed that this guy didn't end up with a more serious injury.

This is only a personal account and an honorable mention but he certainly came close to a full Darwin. Mabe he even achieved it at a later date, but we will probably never know as he remains unnamed.

So, what have we learned here? When you are told not to lean on the glass, you shouldn't lean on the glass!

Note: I did try submitting this once over a year ago but after checking slush/rejected for several months, I never saw it appear so I assume it got eaten or something. Dont remember if I included email, but I never got a notification.(this note can be deleted)

Submitted on 07/24/2011

Submitted by: Chris
Reference:

Copyright © 2011 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Lacks Excellence
Thanks, Chris, but we get lots of stories involving people falling from heights for various reasons, as well as workers ignoring both common safety practices and explicitly stated safety requirements.

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I have to disagree. This guy ignored not one, but several safety measures and warnings in a doubly dangerous environment -more then enough for a PA, I think. Thanks, Chris!

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Chris, I vaguely remember accepting this as a PA, but as you said it was a while ago. Nevertheless, I agree that this qualifies as a PA, especially because the "victim" attempted to sue (the "stupid man's way out" of any such situation, should they survive)! Thanks!

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