Rank: Super forum user 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
Someone needs to get 2 kids and a seesaw and explain the lever principle to the crane people!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
OK...I'll admit it...I laughed out loud at this (especially the signage on the wall).
Me bad....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Melrose80086 wrote:OK...I'll admit it...I laughed out loud at this (especially the signage on the wall).
Me bad....
Me too...it left me reeling...sorry had to be said!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Whoops! And just think of the paperwork!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
I'm not sure why this is funny.
Do you find car crashes and train wrecks amusing too? Is it more or less amusing when someone gets killed?
I've been on site when a crane toppled nearby (not in the UK). I don't recall it being terribly funny. No-one was killed in that incident either, though there were some injuries.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
I tend to share achrn's views, not least through experience in 1977 as a new trainee HSE inspector of accompanying my boss to investigate why the jib of a large crane at Peterhead Harbour suddenly fell under load and killed a young man. (It transpired that the wire rope supporting the jib had snapped after becoming progressively weakened through corrosion induced by salt in the air at the coastal location/s where the crane had been regularly used. The tragedy could have been avoided if the rope had been properly maintained and inspected at appropriate intervals.)
Also, on a general note, it's best to avoid speculative comments about the causes of incidents for which limited information is available from media articles or scanty summaries on this forum. Though the Daily Mail article stated that "A crane toppled onto its side.....when one of its stabilisers sank into the ground." we shouldn't necessarily regard that as a true fact. It might simply reflect a speculative comment made to a journalist by a bystander.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
If you jump down off your moral high horse for a minute you would see I was referring to the sign!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
I dont believe for a moment people don't take the incident seriously or the potential it had for serious injury. It was the ironic signage on the wall that I found amusing (and commented on).
There are already a few people who have commented on inaccuracies in the report (weight of the vehicle for example on the site) so never take what the Daily Mail say as being gospel. From reading the comments here, no one has actually made any speculative comments about the causes of the incident either.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Melrose80086 wrote:I dont believe for a moment people don't take the incident seriously or the potential it had for serious injury. It was the ironic signage on the wall that I found amusing (and commented on).
Really, so "it left me reeling" and "just think of the paperwork" and "someone needs to get 2 kids and a seesaw" were comments by people taking the incident seriously? In that case I'm glad no-one was being flippant about it then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
However amusing, I am not entirely sure that the comments were entirely appropriate on a professional H&S forum - used by professional H&S practitioners.
Yes it's great to show the Daily Mail brigade us H&S anoraks do have a sense of humour, but do we really know - indeed are we really sure that nobody was 'hurt' by this event?
I knew a chap whose crane overturned with him trapped inside the cab, pinned in by rebars either side of his body. He was cut out in a two and a half hour operation by the fire brigade. He suffered cuts and bruises and was said to be very very lucky.
But within weeks his hair fell out, followed by an emotional breakdown - sure signs of PTSD (before it was recognised and talked about). He suffered no real injury and would not have been described as 'hurt', but he never recovered & died a broken man around 8 years later at 55 years old.
I would be amazed if the driver (and associated crew) of this crane was not suffering some PTSD related symptoms, or perhaps develop them over the next few weeks. OK, perhaps their symptoms may be nowhere near as severe as described earlier in my post, but PTSD should be taken seriously after every event. Sadly like many invisible mental health issues, many tend to ignore it
They say humour is all about timing. Perhaps part of that timing is knowing whether something is funny (or not) within the context it is said ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
mssy you are so right, take it from one who has suffered PTSD.
This is a public forum and we all should remember that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
I wasn't going to reply to this but....I have dealt with PTSD in the military and civilian environments and that isn't funny, however..
One of the reasons safety professionals (we) get so heavily criticised by the press and the general public is for being too serious...agreed there are aspects of all of our lives that are very serious including cyber bullying and had the press report said 3 dead that would have been a different story..literally!
I work in an area that is stressful on a good day and the only thing that keeps you sane is two things - honesty and caring.
There is a particular sense of humour that the forces and the emergency services have but at the end of the day they are honest and genuinely caring people otherwise they wouldn't do the job...
You guys rely on the emergency services being there as a control measure...they rely on a sense of humour as a coping mechanism.
Laughing at a misspelt sign is not a crime...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Let me reply in particular to achrn who obviously takes exception to my tongue in cheek comment about "just think of the paperwork", and who asks if people like me (i.e. those who posted flippant comments) find car accidents "more or less amusing when someone gets killed".
To begin with, I'm fully aware of the potential consequences of a crane collapse - but this incident did not result in injuries. It did, however, produce an interesting paradox between the aspirations shown on the sign and the reality in the background.
With reference to his sweeping comment about do I find fatal car accidents amusing, I'd be interested in knowing just how many fatal car accidents (indeed, how many fatal incidents of any kind) achrn has personally dealt with?
For my part, during some 12 years with the ambulance service, I attended literally hundreds of fatal incidents, from heart attacks to house fires to fatal road accidents. Amongst the most memorable (by which innocuous phrase I mean those I cannot forget) are a traffic accident in which a couple were incinerated in their car following a head-on collision, and a young girl who died in my arms in the ambulance. She'd been crushed under the back wheels of a lorry and I watched her die, helpless to do anything for her except talk to her so she knew she wasn't alone in her final moments.
Did I find incidents like the above amusing? No.
Have I lost my sense of humour, or the ability to see the absurdity in some situations? No.
Do I apologise for seeing something absurd in the crane incident? No.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
SteveDM wrote:
Laughing at a misspelt sign is not a crime...
Is it misspelt? I thought it was a pun?
I did find the sign with the upside down crane in the background amusing, though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
SteveDM wrote:
Laughing at a misspelt sign is not a crime...
It wasn't mispelt - they make reel tensioners
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
I see you missed the point of my reply!!!
I think there a few people here need to get over themselves...
Farrall900153 - well said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Steve,
I agree with you & Farrel folks need to lighten up.
Certainly if I tried to do my job from a high horse everyone would be willing me to fall off it!
It brought a smile to my face is that i thought "yet another one!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
I sgree with SteveDM's comment. Although I take safety very seriously, having a sense of humour is vital, in my experience.
I once showed a similar pic to a Senior, top notch engineer, and asked for his opinion. He said (and I quote) Wah Wah Waaaaw, in a Carry On film style. I am still laughing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Glad I'm not the only one then...
and no I don't find car accidents amusing, nor train or any other accident where there are fatalities or serious injury but I DO have a sense of humour which I think is required in our profession given the nature of the job we do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
Context is everything. Those who have worked in areas of high stress know that the sense of humour is a pressure relief mechanism at times. As an ex copper I remember a number of jokes being cracked at times which due to the circumstances seemed funny and broke the tension, but anyone else listening to the banter would have found the humour more than deeply inappropriate, really offensive in fact. The shared circumstance and extreme circumstance made dodgy jokes seem oddly appropriate at the time, but not at any other time. I won't elaborate further as - context is everything. PS I married a nurse. Funny that....
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.