Blazergoalie
Active Member
- Joined
- September 25, 2001
- Messages
- 66
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- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '95 Explorer XLT
Ok guys i saw this on another forum and i am going to post it here:
All: I pass this on as a cautionary tail to you all about the danger posed
by some of our equipment. This happened last weekend. The writer is a
friend in Vermont. I have some bad news to report from the Halloween
Extreme event at Hope Center. John Cranfield from Nova Scotia lost an eye
while high- lift jacking Jesse Ware's Defender 110. Jesse had been trying
to get up a very difficult rock section requiring a ton of momentum and he
blew his left front tire (a huge 37" TSL swamper) off the rim. We winched
him to a tree to stabilize the car as it was on a 40 degree (fore to aft)
angle. John Cranfield broke out the high lift jack to raise the front of
the vehicle up, but it wouldn't go up enough to work on the tire, so he
began to let the jack down to try an alternative jacking position. When he
clicked the jack to lower the vehicle, it hesitated for a few seconds and
John took is hand off the handle. A second later the handle came flying up
and hit him in his left temple with enormous force. The next thing we knew,
John was laying unconscious over Jesse's winchline with blood pouring from
his left eye. I ran and scooped up Jesse's 6-year-old son and Peter, Jr.
and ran up the hill so they wouldn't be traumatized by the horrible sight.
Luckily, Ed Bear is a retired doctor and his wife, Shelly, is a retired
nurse, so they were able to take charge. We broke out some compression pads
from the BSROA first aid kit and some bandages from other first aid kits
and Ed was able to seal the wound. After about 30 seconds, John came to,
but he was very groggy. After calling 911 on the cell phones and with the
ambulances on the way, we needed to get John off the mountain, down to the
entrance road. We made the decision to have me clear out the back of my RR
to create enough room for John to lie down and back myself up a bypass to
get as close to John as possible. We very carefully lifted John into the
back of the RR and Mike Pettengil and his sons offered to watch Peter, Jr.
while I carefully picked my way out of the woods with Ed Bear in the
passenger seat navigating and Shelly in the back with John. John appeared
to be stable on the way out and the ambulance was waiting out on the
entrance road when we arrived. On Sunday morning, Chris Komar and Ed both
gave us reports that they had spoken with John that morning and that he was
recovering from a lengthy operation to restore his eye and the surrounding
eye socket. The doctors unfortunately could not save the eye, but we were
actually somewhat relieved that John had survived the accident. All: I've
since learnt that there is a 20% chance of sight. I wasn't there but guess
that John, flicked the lever when the handle was down not up and the weight
of the vehicle took over from there.
Brandon
All: I pass this on as a cautionary tail to you all about the danger posed
by some of our equipment. This happened last weekend. The writer is a
friend in Vermont. I have some bad news to report from the Halloween
Extreme event at Hope Center. John Cranfield from Nova Scotia lost an eye
while high- lift jacking Jesse Ware's Defender 110. Jesse had been trying
to get up a very difficult rock section requiring a ton of momentum and he
blew his left front tire (a huge 37" TSL swamper) off the rim. We winched
him to a tree to stabilize the car as it was on a 40 degree (fore to aft)
angle. John Cranfield broke out the high lift jack to raise the front of
the vehicle up, but it wouldn't go up enough to work on the tire, so he
began to let the jack down to try an alternative jacking position. When he
clicked the jack to lower the vehicle, it hesitated for a few seconds and
John took is hand off the handle. A second later the handle came flying up
and hit him in his left temple with enormous force. The next thing we knew,
John was laying unconscious over Jesse's winchline with blood pouring from
his left eye. I ran and scooped up Jesse's 6-year-old son and Peter, Jr.
and ran up the hill so they wouldn't be traumatized by the horrible sight.
Luckily, Ed Bear is a retired doctor and his wife, Shelly, is a retired
nurse, so they were able to take charge. We broke out some compression pads
from the BSROA first aid kit and some bandages from other first aid kits
and Ed was able to seal the wound. After about 30 seconds, John came to,
but he was very groggy. After calling 911 on the cell phones and with the
ambulances on the way, we needed to get John off the mountain, down to the
entrance road. We made the decision to have me clear out the back of my RR
to create enough room for John to lie down and back myself up a bypass to
get as close to John as possible. We very carefully lifted John into the
back of the RR and Mike Pettengil and his sons offered to watch Peter, Jr.
while I carefully picked my way out of the woods with Ed Bear in the
passenger seat navigating and Shelly in the back with John. John appeared
to be stable on the way out and the ambulance was waiting out on the
entrance road when we arrived. On Sunday morning, Chris Komar and Ed both
gave us reports that they had spoken with John that morning and that he was
recovering from a lengthy operation to restore his eye and the surrounding
eye socket. The doctors unfortunately could not save the eye, but we were
actually somewhat relieved that John had survived the accident. All: I've
since learnt that there is a 20% chance of sight. I wasn't there but guess
that John, flicked the lever when the handle was down not up and the weight
of the vehicle took over from there.
Brandon
