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CDOT related news in Cotopaxi, Colorado.   Region 2, Section 4, Patrol 60 

The I cut my hand page

Yep, I cut my had at work on February 23, 2009

This is known as an accident.

Increased safety awareness is a major reason for this site. 

And I go and do something stupid like cut my hand.  Not good.  Do not imitate this.

My face is red with embarrassment.

But not as red as my hand!!!!

Here's my story:

I was unloading damaged guardrail out of the back of a midrange dump truck into a dumpster.

Gene Floyd, Kent Sunderman, and Chuck Kline were helping me. 

We were all wearing steel toed boots and leather gloves.   We had the boots on our feet, gloves on our hands.

Gene was at the tailgate end of the truck, I was at the headache rack end.  We were both in the bed. 

The rail was cut into about 12' lengths. Kent was standing on the dumpster outside the truck.

We would lift a piece of rail together, I would hand my end to Kent

 (Kent had just switched with Chuck, who just took a cell phone call),

then they would drop it into the dumpster.   I had parked the truck beside the dumpster.

The dumpster has a lower height than the truck bed. 

This worked very well.  With about 5 pieces left out of 25 or so, I shifted my grip towards the middle of the rail

Gene and I had picked up.  I wanted to be closer to the center to average out the weight between Gene and myself.

As I moved my hand - not touching the rail - I felt the sensation of a razor cut on my hand.

 I've had this sensation before, while shaving my knuckles.

There was no tug or resistance from my CDOT issued work gloves.  That was some sharp metal!

 There was no pain either, and after handing off the rail to Kent,

I pulled off my glove. Ewww. I saw a short, deep bloody cut.

"It's just a flesh wound!"

 I knew it needed stitches.  Gene made some comment such as "woe" or something. 

I put my glove back on and we finished unloading the truck.

I took my glove back off, and it still needed stitches.  Chuck asked me if I wanted to go get it sewed up.  Then he stated that

I should go to the work comp doctor just in case it became infected.  This was good and timely advice.  Pain doesn't

always register well with me.  I knew it needed stitches, but it did not hurt at all.  Without Chuck's matter of fact positive attitude toward

getting medical attention, I would have hemmed and hawed awhile before going to the doctor.

A large part of not wanting to go to the work comp doctor (I've been before) is the dread (real workplace violence!) of the reams of

paperwork (ok, just a few pages) and the third degree quizzing on what happened and why.  It would just about be more

pleasant to let gangrene set in and have the hand fall off, than jump through all CDOT's hoops

.  I would have waited and went to my personal physician but this year right now I don't have the money.

This is what's wrong with CDOT.

Anyhow, Chuck drove me across Canon City to CCOM.  He called my supervisors and left word about what was going on.

It was then 2:57 pm, and we decided I must have got the cut around 2:45 PM.

This was the fastest I've ever been seen at CCOM! I got right in and didn't even have to fake passing out!  Yay!

I started taking pictures right away.

Below:  If it does not fit you must acquit!  The black on the white glove is blood that soaked through from the inside.

  I wore the glove on the way over to CCOM

It fell on the floor with a nice "splat".  Sorry nurse!  She (Rebecca) retaliated by giving me a tetanus shot.

The needle was about three feet long.

.

Click on any photo for a larger, bloodier version.

Ketchup and Mustard! Yum!                                

Seven perfect stitches!

Movie #3, Click here

It's worth getting quicktime just to hear the background music in this video.

The Doc, Steve, gave me some caflex to fight infection and some 800mg ibprophen. No good drugs.

At first the Doc put me on Limited Duty, then changed his mind

and said Full Duty, with limited nose picking for one week.

(This only after I went back inside and begged, as Region 2 CDOT does not allow "modified duty")

That's some serious people skills!

Chuck drove us back to the Canon shop, and I took the midranger back to Cotopaxi.

Movie #4, Click here

Next, CDOT will spend a lot of money fretting about this incident.

CDOT supplies leather work gloves for employees.

This is what's Right at CDOT.

The latest gloves currently issued by CDOT offer the least protection.  That's a fact.

However, they probably are less expensive.  I had worn this pair about three times. 

I'll be purchasing my own work gloves for this type of work henceforth.  Lesson learned.

 Not to blame the saintly CDOT!!!  Precious tender mercies might be offended if that were to occur!

m u s t                     d r i n k                   t h e                       k o o l a i d

I knew the new gloves were crap.  I was too lazy to get better gloves.  That's irresponsible.

Thin gloves are nice in the summer for lots of chores. That's my opinion.

Now I'm motivated to be responsible, just poor.  But it's only a few days till payday!

Recap

What Happened:

Damaged guardrail needs unloaded from truck to dumpster.

Truck level is higher than dumpster, so loading out of truck saves stress on back as opposed to dumping

rail on the ground and lifting into a loader bucket.  Plenty of help.  Plenty of time.  No one was in a hurry.

I had on all the required safety gear plus hearing protection and a back support belt that I bought out of pocket.

Cut hand. Back ok.  Ears....still can't hear well.

CCOM fixed cut.

If it gets infected, amputation cost won't be out of my pocket.  I'm covered.

How could have I prevented this accident?

Be more careful handling the rail.

Wear thicker gloves.

If we had forklifts on a piece of equipment it would save some handling.  None were available at this site.

Some type of choker set up might be devised to set around the load as loaded to facilitate unloading with a loader.

m u s t                     d r i n k                   t h e                        k o o l a i d

could there be more?...maybe...

Jerry Degenhart went to CCOM on the same day for a sore back he got working on guardrail last week.

Jerry and I were born on the same day.  That's a fact.

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Photos © 2009 Nelson Moore

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This is not affiliated with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).