Man Crushed under Car

Forum Sponsor
Buddy of mine had an aerostar van fall on him. Crushed his chest and he layed there for 2 hours before someone came outside to find him. Spent a few weeks in hospital and a few surguries.
He had it jacked up and supported with some cut logs. Since then, it seems everyone that knew him became super anal about how we support our vehicles when we work on them.

Luckily, having a truck I almost never need to jack it up to work on it
 
If you don't need to remove the wheel, use a ramp. Even safer, drive your car up 2 ramps in the front or rear.
 
Ouch... I'm always slightly paranoid about this too. My stands are missing the safety pins which I've always considered not necessary but I think I may pick some up now just to cover my bases.
 
Sometimes it's not even the jacks. There was a fellow in the neighbourhood next to mine (might've been a house on Greenwood, can't remember exactly where), he was working on restoring an old ambulance (think Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters) and had it up in ramps or jackstands in his front yard. Some nutbag ran a red light right there, run up on to the curb, into his front yard/driveway and smashed right into the car, which collapsed on top of him.

Of course that's not his fault - that's a freak accident. What the hell could anyone have done to anticipate that?
 
Mongrel said:
Sometimes it's not even the jacks. There was a fellow in the neighbourhood next to mine (might've been a house on Greenwood, can't remember exactly where), he was working on restoring an old ambulance (think Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters) and had it up in ramps or jackstands in his front yard. Some nutbag ran a red light right there, run up on to the curb, into his front yard/driveway and smashed right into the car, which collapsed on top of him.

Of course that's not his fault - that's a freak accident. What the hell could anyone have done to anticipate that?
Click to expand...

My brother used to change his oil of his car on the road way because our driveway is sloped. I've address this concern many times & he thinks I'm retarded. Sometimes you can't fix stupid

Sent from my tablet using my paws
 
Some very good points made here, stands are made for a vertical load, not a side load, not leaning in a driveway, straight down load.
I worked years ago in a shop and we had stands and jacks and stuff all over, I was amazed at some of the goofballs that would sit with thier legs under a car on a hydraulic jack because the stand took 3secs to slide under.
 
People have to remember that scissors jack is for EMERGENCIES only. It was not made to hold a car when you service it with you under the car. I always have 3-ton jack (yes, overkill) and a huge wood stump under the car (at an axle) before I 'venture' there. I do have 2 axle stands that I use as 'supplements' once in a while. And for sloped driveways, it's always a good idea to put wedges (wood, plastic, metal, or even a brick) behind at least two wheels.Nobody wants 2 tons of steel crashing on their head :(. RIP to that person.
 
If you cant afford a regular run of the mill hydraulic jack, you cant afford to work on your car. Period. I wouldnt even consider using the scissor jacks for ANYTHING other than changing a tire in the middle of nowhere.

100 bucks and mine is used all the time. Get the widest base possible. It really helps with tipping over. I also have 4 good jacks, two are 3 ton and two are 6 ton.

A piece of plywood always goes under the jack, that way the load is distributed and you wont have one corner of the jack sinking into the asphalt and possibly falling over.

Oh, and life is all about risks and mitigating risks. Being too afraid of anything because it "might" happen is no way to coast through life.
 
Condolences to this guy's family... I work on my car in my garage quite a bit. Definitely makes you think twice about safety. I usually try to have a back up when using jack stands and I'm a lone If I take the wheels off, I put them under the frame rails incase the jack fails. If I don't I usually use a pair of my winters. I also double check my jacks and chalks are in working order before I use them everytime. Guess I'm just paranoid lol.
 
RetroGrouch said:
If you don't need to remove the wheel, use a ramp. Even safer, drive your car up 2 ramps in the front or rear.
Click to expand...

LOL. Ramps are garbage. I have seen a CT metal ramp collapsing under a sedan. I have a set of rhyno ramps, and would never trust those either.
 
Red_Liner740 said:
A piece of plywood always goes under the jack, that way the load is distributed and you wont have one corner of the jack sinking into the asphalt and possibly falling over.
Click to expand...

Very important point. If your working on anything other then concrete always put a piece of plywood under your jack and your stands.
 
ViperZ said:
LOL. Ramps are garbage. I have seen a CT metal ramp collapsing under a sedan. I have a set of rhyno ramps, and would never trust those either.
Click to expand...

Everything can fail....

Even a car hoist in a proper shop can fail.
 
Torren said:
Very important point. If your working on anything other then concrete always put a piece of plywood under your jack and your stands.
Click to expand...

Great point. I guess I got spoiled lately :cool:
 
ViperZ said:
Sure thing, but my point is that ramps alone are as dangerous as that scissors jack under your car.
Click to expand...

Can you cite any sort of statistics on ramp failures? I've been using my Rhyno Ramps for years and haven't noticed any structural degradation. I've never heard of ramps failing and I've always considered them the safest means of working under a car. Safer than jacks anyhow....
 
Everytime I take a wheel off my car I put the wheel underneath the sill of the car. If **** fails then I'd rather crush an alloy rim than a ribcage. It's not perfect but it helps keep the rim out the way while you're working as well.
 
Never ever ever get under a car held up by a scissor jack. Just don't! If you need to use it to change a tire that's one thing, but that's all it should ever be used for.

I use a 5 ton floor jack and 3 ton jack stands whenever I'm under a car. After I have the stands in I give the car a healthy rock to make sure it's secure. After that I put the floor jack on the side that I'll predominately be under and raise it to 1/4" below the jack point with the handle all the way down parallel to the floor so that if a stand does fail the jack will catch the fall long enough for me to slide out. Never had a scare yet but I'm really strict about it.
 
A good cheap backup for jack stands would be nailing a few pieces of 2x6 together until you get enough height that if the car drops off the stands it won't crush you. It's light, stable and stackable as long as you make the cuts long enough.
 
caboose483 said:
Can you cite any sort of statistics on ramp failures? I've been using my Rhyno Ramps for years and haven't noticed any structural degradation. I've never heard of ramps failing and I've always considered them the safest means of working under a car. Safer than jacks anyhow....
Click to expand...

Statistics? I can go and take a photo of that crushed ramp, because it is still in my relative's garage. I am using Rhyno ramps too, but I always put something under the car in case they fail.
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom