TAR N' FEATHER HIM!!!!

[Jettaknight]

Came into work this morning to here about a maintenance mechanic that took a face full of hi-pressure steam for his bastard boss. Now the poor guy is in the hospital on morphine to dull the pain and will need quite a few visits for skin grafts, etc.
Seems we were there doing the annual servicing and made a bunch of recommendations for repairs. The owner tells us to give him a quote "with" and "without" labor. To save a few hundred dollars he buys the parts himself and tells his maintenance guy to do the repairs.

"Listen, I'm only an electrician. I know nothing about steam so you better get the service company back." says the maintenance guy.

"I hired you as a mechanic so don't give me that B***S***! Change the damn parts or find another job!" says the owner.

I really hope workmens comp rake this owner over the coals. Come to think of it, tar n' feathering is too good for him...

Mike

[cyro]

I am against most law suits but this poor man will be very rich soon.

[2hot2coolme]

I'm sure it's gonna be pretty crappy to be rich with a melted face...whatta dik!! Now goofball ain't got no maintenance man.

[Jettaknight]

I'm not sure but I think that if the accident happens at work you can't sue. That's where workmens comp comes in. If that's the case he better have a good attorney by his side. They can be the biggest bastards.
Mike

[thoglow]

This is the kind of thing that makes me sick.God bless that electrican.I hope the SOB goes to jail and becomes
Bubba's boy toy.

[oogene]

after the worker's comp issue is solved (or even now), electrician should pursue civil litigation!!!

[snipe70e]

Ain't no job worth a careless trip to the hospital.

You can sue for careless acts. Lets hope OSHA investagates.

[hvac hero]

Thats definitely a bad deal for the maintenance man who I'm sure just did it to keep from getting fired. The real shame of it all is that the boss that made him do it, is probably not the owner. So a huge workmans comp claim might look bad on his record, but its not really going to cost him any money. It would be nice if the owner of the company got involved & fired the person who forced the maintenance man to do this.

[alpha480v]

Too bad for the maintenance guy. Hope he recovers soon and sues the **** out of that company!!

[Jettaknight]

I'm in the shop this morning so I'll be asking for any updates. Us burners mechanics'll be sending the guy some flowers or something. He is a good man. Any time we got a service call he'd be the one helping us out with questions.
IMHO some maintenance mechanics think they know it all but Nick was one of the good guys. He knew the "boundries" and was our best diagnostic tool for troubleshooting their systems.
I wonder how the owner slept last few days??

Mike

[srmfsr]

Probably slept good. That type doesn't have any conscience.

[Eclipse]

Yep. And if the boss is the type of guy he's described to be, if he hasn't slept well it's out of liability worries rather than out of concern for the well-being of his worker. And although worker's comp normally precludes lawsuits, if this incident happened the way it was described, it may well fall within the intentional tort exception. Although the boss obviously did not intend for his worker to be injured, if I'm not mistaken requiring someone to perform a hazardous task for which you know they are not qualified falls within that exception. In any event, hope he has speedy recovery.

[Shophound]

Originally posted by 2hot2coolme
I'm sure it's gonna be pretty crappy to be rich with a melted face...whatta dik!! Now goofball ain't got no maintenance man.

And I hope he never has another one. If he wasn't qualified to do that work himself he never should've told any unqualified maintenance staff to do it. Unqualified is unqualified...if you don't know how to get it done, don't be a cheap @ss, get someone in who is qualified. It's always less expensive over the long haul to pay up front initially for quality and qualification.

[ralphtheplumber]

So how exactly did this guy come to have a face full of steam?

[Jettaknight]

The boss told him to drain the boiler by running a rubber hose to a drain. I know... "Why wasn't it already piped to a drain?" Anyway 100# of steam translates to about 350'F so you can imagine the rest. Once the water hit atmosphere it turned to steam, burst the hose and the maintenance guy got it. Good thing is he was wearing safety goggles or it would have blinded him.

Latest development is the owner is trying to shift the blame to us saying that we didn't warn him of the danger of working on a steam boiler. Our legal advisor laughed.

Mike

[Edited by Jettaknight on 09-26-2006 at 07:51 PM]

[too tall terry]

that is terrible.........the sh*t we have to do for money.......i hope this guy gets to be okay,and gets a "fat wallet" in the process

[The Penguin]

With any luck and justice the "boss that made the guy do the dangerous work will get fired fined And SUED by the injured worker. Here in Canada you can as a manager get sued and possibly criminally charged and go to jail for negligance or willfully putting an employee in harms way/ or contrevening workers comp safety regulations. I'm sure a judge will find that demanding an electrican to blow down a boiler will meet those criteria.

Hopefully its the same in the us

[gruntly]

Originally posted by Jettaknight

Latest development is the owner is trying to shift the blame to us saying that we didn't warn him of the danger of working on a steam boiler. Our legal advisor laughed.

Mike

[Edited by Jettaknight on 09-26-2006 at 07:51 PM]

Don't set back on yer haunches too soon, eh. A little negativity for you.

ALL things will be maybe considered if it comes to court... Who bought and installed the equipment? YOU brought up the point "Why wasn't the water and PRV drained to a floor drain?". How long has he owned it vs. your company maintaining it? Was it tagged high pressure steam? Your company's liabilities might be more than what it first appears. The biggest thing of all... Was it completely to code as you left it? Tags, notices, VALVE IDENTIFICATION? Was it in safe running order?... If not why wasn't it red tagged? Doing the guy a favour?... Never!! Not with your child's next meal on the line!! You better have had all your deficiencies listed and accounted for in a letter sent to him prior to any problems. Cross your eyes and dot your t's when it comes to blaming someone else or having a finger pointed at you.

It's obvious to you and I that he should never have touched it... An electrician? You guys suffer from stupid electricians? The electricians around here shun pipe wrenches like the plague. Swear an affidavid that they don't even know what they look like. He was either a bad electrician or a real insecure one.

It's one thing if the boss new it was dangerous... He deserves being bankrupted and thrown to Bubba, but did he know it was dangerous and if not, why not? CYA pal. This may hurt.

Up here, due to greedy insurance company issues, shifting blame is practiced to a science.

Case in point, you won't believe this one, but it happened to a friend and I got the news first hand. Buddy working for the gas company gets a call down to an old garage, that hasn't been used as such for 30 years, under renovation to inspect and start the 20 year old gas heating equipment for a new owner. Goes down and asks the guy what's it going to be used for. "small engine repair" "Good, all is safe and running. Have a nice life" 3 years...count'em... 3 years go by... the building burns to the ground. Buddy gets a summons along with the gas company reps... He doesn't even work for the gas company anymore... to appear in court. Figuring in reality it's just a formality to ask about the building, he gets there and he and the gas company are charged and convicted of negligence and they are sued AND fined 50% each for not telling the owner AT THE TIME OF THE ORIGINAL INSPECTION 3 YEARS EARLIER he was not allowed to turn it into an autoshop. He turned it into an autoshop 3 months before it burned down... No $**T... This is for real. CYA pal.

[hvac hero]

Originally posted by The Penguin
Here in Canada you can as a manager get sued and possibly criminally charged and go to jail for negligance or willfully putting an employee in harms way/ or contrevening workers comp safety regulations.
Hopefully its the same in the us

Here in the US, they'll probably go after the manufacturer of the hose, because there wasnt a warning sticker on it stating that its not safe to drain a boiler.

[Jettaknight]

One thing thats been drilled into my head for years is "document" everything and anything regardless of how insignificant it may seem. Our work orders have enough room for this however I have my own journal where I record a lot more. This would be considered a legal document if ever I had to go to court.
Although we all have come a long way when it comes to worker safety there are a lot of employers that are living in the stone age and a lot of employees that still do not know their rights.

Mike

P.S. Penguin, this happened in Toronto, Ontario

[gruntly]

Originally posted by Jettaknight
One thing thats been drilled into my head for years is "document" everything and anything regardless of how insignificant it may seem. Our work orders have enough room for this however I have my own journal where I record a lot more. This would be considered a legal document if ever I had to go to court.
Although we all have come a long way when it comes to worker safety there are a lot of employers that are living in the stone age and a lot of employees that still do not know their rights.

Mike

P.S. Penguin, this happened in Toronto, Ontario

You in Tronno;), Mike? I take it TSSA$$es are involved... suitably flying paper airplanes with the names of all those wrongfully involved... farthest one wins... or looses depending on your point of view. Due dilegence man, due dilegence.

Hope your pal, the MM, get back on his feet again soon.

Tony.

[anna conda]

OSHA involved in this? I know Ontario OSHA differs a bit from where I'm at; here out west, OSHA and WCB'd say this was pretty cut and dried. Worker was given a direction, he voiced his concern for safety and lack of qualification, owner overrules, worker suffers serious injury -- they'd have this nutbar owner flayed. Document, document. He told the worker to drain a steam boiler with a rubber hose?? - that is a clear sign of "unbelieveably unqualified to do this work" on the part of the nutbar owner!

Condolances to the poor victim. I sincerely hope he doesn't suffer permanent disfigurement. Its bad enough being out on morphine. Steam burns *hurt.*

[The Penguin]

LIke I orginally said I hope the Mgr does jail time

[Jettaknight]

Gruntly,
Yep I'm in T.O. So far TSSA, WSIB, and others have been notified.
It's one of those things where our guys had everything documented. Recommendations and code infractions were all given to the owner. Quotes were sent out.

The problem is if you try to disable equipment thinking that you're protecting the next guy from turning it on, it can come back and bite you. The scenario continues where the owner'll get his maintenance guy to reconnect everything so as to fire up the unit. Legally all we can do is turn the gas cock off and advise the authorities. There is nothing stopping the owner from turning it back on. Same with repairs. All we can do is recommend. The key is to document EVERYTHING regardless how insignificant.

Latest development heard.

The afternoon of the accident the "boss" was scrambling to get all these repairs done B4 anything else happened. IMHO, he was trying to cover up the accident. Correct me if I'm wrong but after a serious personal injury involving machinery, equipment or whatever I believe by law no one can touch anything until the proper authorities have had a look-see.

The MM is back home resting but will need a few visits to a plastic surgeon. Still in a bit of pain, too.

Mike

[gruntly]

I think we should negotiate a X border treaty with our southern buds there so's they can send us all their cases involving people the public think should get off lightly, like cops that accidently;) shoot known criminals, and we send them our cases we thing deserve a hanging judge... Bet we'd benefit more from it.

I don't know what's wrong with these owner/manager idiots. I went into a concrete precast manufacturer once... I told him he'd have to shut down the plant and let me get a scissor-lift in to fix the radiant tube heaters in his mold room: 4 storeys straight down. HE wanted me to crawl out along his crane and fix them from there... while work below continued. I walked out and didn't get the job... Oh, boohoo:(;) But 3 weeks later he pancaked one of his employees with a slab in the same room and it shut the plant down for an investigation... Never heard about what happened there after that.

[refrigerationtech]

Jettaknight

im from T.O and when i worked on stuff like this came across this all the time, they call in the tech then get there guys to repair. tech gets liability cause his the person whos got the license. thats why i think tssa and authorities aint doing there job going after us other then these managers doing this. thats why it is IMPORTANT to document everything. finding,how ya left it and its state all in extrmemly prices written to a lawyers T. cause they deny they had anything to do with it. in this time there guy got hurt, could be a innocent person on site. i say hope they nail the sob and hard. im tired of this trade telling them what to do and safety concerns and they turn around and dont give a sh$$. i give no brakes. i see a small crack in a heat exch. i tag and shut it. i really feel for this guy cause i know how it is, u sometimes are forced to do a job u dont want to do and if ya refuse u out. but unfortunatly many caint cause that pays there bills and unfornately people like this sob get away with it. All i can say it should of been the Sob face in it then he relized it. hope it works out for him.

[rich pickering]

100# steam? Where was the operator? Somebody could lose his ticket.

[Jettaknight]

Originally posted by rich pickering
100# steam? Where was the operator? Somebody could lose his ticket.

I hear ya! I'd have to read the "plant operators act" if there is such an animal. I know that we are retrofitting a lot of steam boilers with all sorts of safeties. High and low water cutoffs, etc. that need to be manually reset.

I think that seems to be the trend. Have a boiler set up so that if a problem arises a safety will shut it down until a technician comes and repairs it.

A big problem is that in the Toronto area there are not many GF1's around that are either experienced with high HP boilers or want to work on them. Some companies are paying GF1's upwards of $50 an hour guaranteed 40/hr a week to keep them. To cover that they have hourly rates of $150/hr. Not many production plants want to pay that. Easier to get the maintenance guys at $25/hr to do the repairs.

As in this story it is costing the owner far more than he ever dreamed. But do you think he'll learn anything?? Probably not...

Mike

[The Penguin]

Only if they put him and his mgr in jail for a spell then only then will the co owners and mgrs learn to play by the rules - everything else is just a cost of doing business. If the injured worker is able to sue the co and the mgr/owner personally that also may just get their attention

both senerios are unlikely though