Scary Reminder!!! Be careful!

[elks]

Saw this story just a few minutes ago. Broken and loosened strap come through cab and kills the driver. Always remember your safety even when pulling stumps.

I love how they call it a freak accident, but in all honesty it has happened a lot more than they realize...

http://kdvr.com/2013/06/17/man-killed-as-tow-hook-whips-into-his-vehicle/

DENVER — A man was killed Monday morning in a freak accident that sent a tow hook whipping into the back of his head, the Aurora Police Department reported.
A group of people was removing tree stumps from the yard of a house in the 1300 block of Scranton Street about 10:42 a.m., police said. One man was using a tow strap attached to his International Harvester Scout SUV to tear stumps from the ground.
At one point, the tow hook somehow pulled free from a stump and slung back at the vehicle. It blew through the rear window, hitting the driver in the head, police said. The SUV then accelerated across the street and into the porch of a neighboring house. An elderly man sitting on the porch was hit by the vehicle, which rolled over upon impact.
Both men were rushed to the hospital. The driver was pronounced dead, but the elderly man was expected to recover.
An investigation was under way, but police said they do not expect any criminal charges in the case.

 

[wasted wages]

I saw a guy's leg get mangled by a steel ring that was attached to a strap.....slipped off the stuck trucks trailer ball....shot the entire length of a 30 ft strap and struck a bystander... clearing out the lower portion of his leg....

he left the site via lifeflight ... not in good shape....

 

[nvrenuf]

I've never seen someone get hurt but I have seen a trailer ball break off and slingshot back into the stuck vehicles windshield.

 

[wasted wages]

I also pulled about 30 ft of coiled up strap out of the front grill of my K5 once....


thank god the old unused a/c condenser was still in place..... it would have ruined my radiator.....

 

[454Sub]

My brother broke a strap on his Burb trying to pull mine out once, crushed the rear door in completely. I have had a winch cable come around and bust my windshield out, along with cabling it up from the front headlight to the rear taillight in random spots.

The destructive power of a cable, strap, chain or whatnot is amazing, and can really lay a whooping on you in the form of mangled or missing body parts, if your lucky that is. This fellow wasnt so lucky unfortunately.

 

[diesel4me]

A friend of a friend I knew had a trailer ball snap off when someone used a tow strap to yank his stuck jeep out of a mud pit,by looping it over the ball.....he was standing in just the right place to have the ball cave in his face,right between the eyes...closed casket..

Another friend of mine who owns a ramp truck uses it to haul scrap cars to the scrapyard to make money...too often he's reckless as to how he attaches the winch cable to the items he hauls up into the bed...and doesn't always tie the items down as well as he should either--"its only a couple miles to the junkyard,I dont need to chain it up,the winch will hold it"....so far it has,but one day he'll regret not being more careful...

One day when he was coming back from dropping a car off empty,he heard a strange "clanging" noise,and felt the truck lurch suddenly in a strange fashion..he slowed down to pull over and take a look at the truck,when the winch cable,that had come out of the slot in the truck bed somehow,got loose,and had gotten "chucked" when it dropped over the side,went between the dual rear tires on the passenger side,and the hook came all the way forward and put a nice dent in the right front fender...he was lucky it didn't tear the fender off,pop both rear tires,or come thru the windsheild...or kill anyone else nearby!..

 

[hillbilly deluxe]

Here's a broken strap picture. This was my '96 F-350 (sold it, already had a money pit Suburban!). We had 2 straps hooked together with a giant freaking shackle. Needless to say one broke and became a missile. Lucky it was not higher and to the left I'm sure neither the back window or my head would have slowed it down much.

Good idea for a post. We all kinda laugh as we tear stuff up and forget how dangerous our fun can be sometimes.

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

Wow...

I'm happy I bought a $400 Bubba Rope, now.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Jup, whenever you're winching or pullin stumps, etc. Toss a heavy coat, floor mats, extra heavy chain or something over the middle of the strap,

And it's 2013 stop buying tow straps with metal hooks already

 

[Russell]

Or stop using tow straps for things other than towing, LOL! Towing does not equal recovering...

Our local offroad association holds regular classes for proper recovery. Its amazing how often I see people using hitch balls, steel slings, winch ropes, chains, tow straps with steel hooks or straps tied together with shackles etc out on the trail to try and snatch a vehicle out. Extremely dangerous stuff...

Work makes me mad, they have made proper recovery gear "illegal" on site and force us to use steel slings to try and recover stuck vehicles. I don't bother, I just call the tow truck every time I get immobilized and I can't just dig my way free. Someone is going to get killed by one of those wire ropes someday while yanking on a stuck vehicle. They are rated for static pulls, not dynamic or shock loads.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

Hey I still support chains for both static and dynamic pulls. Granted of course you have a proper size chain. Never broke one yet

But I've always played with some pretty tough chain.