Hand mangled in snow blower
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Captain Jay Davis rescues hand from snow blower.PHOTO BY CHARLES WERNER
Authorities report no severe road accidents in the season’s first snow December 16, but one sidewalk accident appears serious. The casualty was a man clearing snow at Midway Manor on Ridge Street. He reached in to unclog the snow blower and ended up with his hand stuck.
Midway Manor is across the street from the fire station, and Captain Jay Davis was able to reverse the gears on the blower to create enough of an opening to get the man’s hand out, says Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner.
The man was taken to UVA Medical Center. “He was pretty seriously injured,” says Werner. “His fingers were significantly disfigured.”
Werner warns against reaching into a snow blower— or any other machinery that’s running— and suggests that if the blower becomes clogged, to cut it off before trying to clear it out. “Hands can get stuck in anything,” says Werner.
“Hands can get stuck in anything.”
Tell me about it!
Way back in the old days before there was any regulation to protect workers, factory injuries abounded. A bad one was the “de-gloving” injury: industrial washing-machines had big rollers that workers (often children) would feed wet clothes into to dry. If a hand got tangled or somehow was pulled into the roller, the worker would instinctively pull their hand back out of the tight wooden rollers, sometime causing the de-gloving injury. The skin on the hand was pulled off completely, like taking off a glove and leaving it inside out. Ouch!
Does this mean he would put his hands under a lawnmower while it was running as well? I hope he gets better soon….
Pretty gruesome photo. Looks like it got him pretty good.
I certainly hope his hand can be saved and have normal function.
PS: I certainly would not want OSHA fouling up snow clearing the way the have fouled up everything else they have butted into.
Dahmius, that was a stupid comment. Do you have any heart?
Was it really necessary to use a snow blower with only 3″ of snow? Certainly a shovel would have been more than adequate to clear the walkway and the only ‘injury’ might have been a sore back.
Princess, why single out Dahmius? Proctologist’s, Dentata’s and OccMed’s comments were worse than that. All Dahmius said was what the rest of us were probably thinking, which wasn’t anything rude.
I think Dahmius is also seeing a lot of the RED paint as a product of the aftermath. So the image looks worse than it actually is.
Maybe the piece of equipment is red and the white is just from the snow. I should have surmised that before. My bad.
Move to China and work there. You’d love the total lack
of OSHA like regulations. Just the wonder and joy of
free enterprise in a communist country.
OSHA is another government agency that has to do something once in a while just to justify their own existence. And this something is very often just about as simple minded as…. well, as simple minded as me occasionally. :)
We are a sensationalized nation. I can’t imagine such a photo being published a few years ago.
What is gruesome about the picture? You cannot see the hand only the effort to free it. As I understand, there was very little blood if any and none of which was seen. At best, you can see a little bit of the glove. Everyone is so critical these days and often when they know so little. Geez…and if there’s a chance that it gets someone’s attention not to think of doing the same thing, is that bad? Thanks Hook!
Don’t let him near a blender……………..
Time to sharpen those lawn mower blades! Just hold the file level and turn it on.
Wow! I hope he learned something.