Reply With QuoteUpdate: Man killed by bowling alley machinery
OSHA investigation is underway.
2014 Man dies in freak accident at bowling alley
Experienced lanes worker caught in machinery
Right handed Stroker, high track ,about 13 degree axis tilt. PAP is located 5 9/16” over 1 3/4” up.Speed ave. about 14 mph at the pins. Medium rev’s.High Game 300, High series 798
"Talent without training is nothing." Luke Skywalker
Update: Man killed by bowling alley machinery
Update: Man killed by bowling alley machinery
OSHA investigation is underway.
Right handed Stroker, high track ,about 13 degree axis tilt. PAP is located 5 9/16” over 1 3/4” up.Speed ave. about 14 mph at the pins. Medium rev’s.High Game 300, High series 798
"Talent without training is nothing." Luke Skywalker
EEK! I hate seeing that probably more than anyone on this board, make me cringe. It proves you have to respect the power of these machines. They only have 1/3 hp motors but that said, humans aren't a match for the torque. The very very FIRST thing my mechanic said to me loudly, direct and as serious as anything I ever heard is. If you have to get inside or under these machines UNPLUG THEM! If you merely shut them off, they can be accidentally turned on, the counter can turn them on if they don't know your in there. UNPLUG THEM! and there is no way for them to come on. Even after they get turned off by the counter or one of the switches, the rear motor which controls the distributor, ball lift and pin lift continues to run for 90 seconds. That's long enough to kill you!
The other thing is we are to have our shirts tucked in our pants and if it's a long sleeve, roll them up! A lot can happen back there, you have to respect the machines because they will not respect you. My mechanic lost half a finger from the approach side of a ball return because his wedding ring got caught. His finger was ripped off so fast he didn't even know for several seconds. They aren't toys! There have been a handful of deaths from these things but surely a staggering number of major injuries and lost appendages than anyone ever knows. They are cool but they are dangerous, safety is #1 the bowlers can b**** all they want but they are gonna wait for as long as it takes for us to be safe. I'd rather lose a 10 customers than one finger or a whole league than my life.
holy smokes and it sounded like this guy was a seasoned veteran.
Yep, that's why when you first got the job, I warned you to be careful back there. The year before, not at my alley but at another Brunswick Zone in NJ, the lane maintenance guy lost an arm. It didn't make the news or anything but because of that, they had to implement new safety rules at the local Brunswick Zone. The mechanic now has to not only unplug the lane he's working on, but unplug the 2 adjacent lanes too. You can imagine how popular that rule was when they told all the leagues. But I get it safety first. If we need to wait a few minutes so no one gets hurt, then I'm ok with it.Originally Posted by Phonetek
Oh and don't think I didn't take you seriously Jason and I greatly appreciated you saying something. With this guy I can only hypothesize that he was either wearing too loose of clothing, it wasn't tucked in or sleeves weren't rolled up. Freak accidents do happen though. The problem with being seasoned and experienced you can get too comfortable and get the attitude "Nothing can happen to me".
I did it at the telephone company myself at times and when I was doing roof inspections. Being a seasoned expert as I was at telecom I still got hurt. I've been zapped by simple phone lines from ring gen and HDSL circuits with 175 volts on them. Luckily no significant amperage to do anything but that didn't make it pleasant. With the roofing, I climbed up roofs like a jack rabbit. One time I zipped right up one then realized I had to call the fire department to get down because it was too steep. That's what happens when you get "comfortable".
Luckily I didn't suffer any significant injuries in my careers or pay the ultimate price. With this job I am lucky to have a man who takes pride in his job and with safety as well.
Something to note is that, Just because it's unplugged doesn't mean it safe!
At one of the houses here years back on league, All the lanes shutdown. We all wondered what happened, they came on the PA and told everyone be quiet. So everyone shut up and when it got quiet, you could hear someone yelling "HELP! HELP!...).
What happened was, one of the lanes went down. The mechanic went to fix it, he found a pin jammed into the mechanism. So he shut it all down and went in and pulled it out.
Well that took the pressure off the mechanism and two pieces closed together with his head in between them and he couldn't get out. He was okay just a small cut, but it showed just because it was off didn't mean the parts couldn't still move.
Right handed Stroker, high track ,about 13 degree axis tilt. PAP is located 5 9/16” over 1 3/4” up.Speed ave. about 14 mph at the pins. Medium rev’s.High Game 300, High series 798
"Talent without training is nothing." Luke Skywalker
as I am not very familiar with back of center operations, is there a possibility of doing a lock out tag out on the plug or switch? I am sure there is usually only one person back there but I could see someone from the front desk running back to figure out why the pin setter was not working and see something un plugged or turned off and take it upon themselves to plug it back in.
Bowl, if your goal is to scare the s*** out of me you are succeeding LOL Yes, even with them off and your laying under the table they CAN still fall down on you. If the brushes in the table motor are bad, it won't support the table and it will fall. It "usually" won't come crashing down, just slowly come down but potentially it could. Also, there are springs on the table and where the pin cups are. If you have a pin in between there is a proper way to remove it so when the tension of the pin being there is release that you won't get caught in there.
You can lower the table manually by using a crank tool on a motor. If the table wouldn't go down manually he should have pulled the springs to release the tension and used a claw rather than his hand to pull the pin out. Freak accidents do happen and even when taking proper precautions things can happen. I'd still have to say that most injuries are caused by being in too big of hurry and being careless and too comfortable. I'm hoping to get through this career with nothing more than a few minor cuts, scrapes and knuckle busters and leave it at that.
So Yes, even with the machines completely powered off the belts and springs are still under tension. If you think I talk a lot on here you should meet me in person. I ask the mechanic a bazillion questions, especially when it's about things like this. Suffice it to say it's going to be a while before I am going to feel comfortable doing many things with these machines without his supervision. In the short time I've been there I have nearly 50 pages of notes. Much of them is about what NOT to do and potential dangers. Because of this thread and the other one I am going to make sure to go in extra early today and take that video of the machine operation I promised. I think even more than ever people need to see it.
I worked in a steel mill for 10 years. Before I started there there was a guy that was retiring in a week. He walked up to a conveyor to clear something from it and the pulley guard wasn't in place. It caught his denim work jacket and crushed him to death.
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