Construction work....

I've nearly been killed twice during my time as a Site Engineer. The first was when I walked into the swing radius of a very large digger without realising it.....The first I knew was when I was showered with earth. Looking up, I was faced with the bucket of the machine, with about a tonne of earth in it. It was 3 inches above my eye line, and around 5 inches from my head. The peak of my hard hat blocked it from view.

But the best one went like this:

Working way up in the Highlands of Scotland on a water treatment works which was live and running. The crew I was working with were not the best in the world and had managed to dig through a telecoms cable whilst digging a drainage ditch. The next day, I was standing in this ditch, knee deep in muddy water and guiding a digger in the hunt for the ends of the cable so it could be repaired...As the bucket groped around in the mud and rocks I saw something in the water....it was something red...

"Stop " says I, "there's something here"

"It's nothing" Says the machine driver. "Just a rock or something."

"Well just stop anyway" I reply.

He stops, and the water drains away to reveal a thick red cable caught in the teeth of the bucket...A thick red cable carrying somewhere in the region of 11,000 volts to power the entire treatment works.
( Larry Death Anger Pain Fear Aggression, Sat 21 Aug 2010, 22:36, 3 replies)

Dial
before you dig.;)
( bane, Sat 21 Aug 2010, 23:46, closed)

I dailed before digging
on the one occasion I have had to do so, useless fuckers basically had no idea whether there were cables or not. I even gave them the numbers off the access pit just metres from where I needed to dig, but still clueless.
(M61A1 CUPID- STUNTS, Sun 22 Aug 2010, 2:29, closed)

By my estimate, if that had been cut, I think you'd have landed somewhere near Newcastle?

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Tue 24 Aug 2010, 9:13, closed)