When being prepared counts...
Accidents happen, and being prepared for them can be a real good thing.
In addition to being the IT manager where I work, I am also the #2 safety coordinator for our labs, and a member of the CERT team (A major University).
On Thursday last week I was in a meeting when I got the call: Accident in the structures lab with major injuries. I ran down 3 flights of stairs, went to my office and grabbed my CERT bag and a camera. What had happened was that the lab techs were taking apart a large Concrete test subject and when one of the weights came off with the crane pulling on it, the subject teetered and fell sideways. There were 3 people behind it though...
The 2 students managed to get out of the way, but the lab tech was not so lucky. He got caught between an 8000 pound chunk of concrete and a steel support column that is part of the gantry crane. Fortunately he did not get the full blow, but there was enough pressure to pin him good and crush his pelvis and right leg. Before I got there the lab crew managed to get the weight off him and get him to the ground, but they were at a loss as to what to do then other than 911.
So I showed up, assessed the situation and even though therer were senior engineers on site I did what I was supposed to and took "command" as the first responder on site. ICS calls for this. So We got the injured covered up and started treating for shock, Got everything possible out of the way for ambulance arrival, and then stepped into my job as safety coordinator on site: Documentation! I took lot's of pictures...
So what stood out to me the most was that all these guys in the lab had copious amounts of safety training, 1 hour for every 10 days, yet didn't know what to do once the weight was off the victim.
Things Lab staff didn't do without somebody reminding them:
triage victim/ treat for shock
clear a path for rescuers
mark off dangerous areas(there was the other half of the sample still sitting there with inadequate shoring)
Have a proper 'go bag' with incident response equipment available
Things lab staff did right:
Got the man un-pinned very quickly
notified rescue and department personnel(me as coordinator on-site)
Stood down and rechecked proceedures after the fact and had a re-hash meeting.
What came out of my bag:
Blanket for victim, Shears to cut pants to check the wounds, several pairs of gloves. compress for bleeding. Caution tape to fence off danger zone around the other concrete block.
Conclusion:
All in all, as a team we did really well. We got the victim extricated from the trap without outside help, got got him stabilized and ready for transport long before the EMT's showed up, and then got the scene restored back to a safe working environment quickly.
Training does not substitute real world experiences and even experienced
people can freeze when things look grim. Having a rescue bag in a prominent location and/or assign a staff member the job of grabbing the bag is a good idea. Maybe some practice rescues would be a good idea.
As for the injured staff member. He is having surgery tomorrow to pin him back together and they do expect him to ultimately be ok. I personally don't think he will be for a long time. He is extremely lucky he moved fast though as if the full weight of the test column had landed on him, He probably would not have survived.
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