Scary Experience Last Night! long post

[tjkadar]

John, We all take chances, we may just have a different threshold where we draw the line.

I'm sure you wouldn't play Russian Roulette with a 6 shooter. How about a 100 shooter? No? How about a 1000 shooter? How about a million shooter. At some point, especially if there is a perception of some sort of gain or benefit (reward), we will deem the risk acceptable, considering the reward, or we will deem it insignificant and ignore it. We all have our own criteria, sometimes adjusted by our emotional state.

Of course if you knew you were definitely going to blow your brains out you wouldn't play Russian roulette at all even with a zillion shooter, just like if you knew the seat would fall off the rental equipment and you'd risk serious injury or worse, you'd probably not do it.

The trick is to recognize situations that are just not good enough and not renegotiate your limits based on emotional state, convenience, and such. If it isn't safe and provident when you are not in a hurry it still isn't safe or provident just because you are.

There is a deadly disease among pilots. It is called get-home-itis. I just have to get home because it would be inconvenient to not make it, someone would think I am a wimp, or I will have to pay for another days airplane rental or ... These people often die and take someone with them. JFK junior knowingly pressed on into conditions for which he was not qualified, probably for one or more of the above stated excuses and all souls on board were lost.

There is a saying among pilots:

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots BUT...
There are few old bold pilots. This is applicable to tractoring and other activities.

The good news is you probably didn't suffer permanent injury (we can only hope) and you live to play again and probably be a more careful citizen for having had that experience.

I hope you are OK and didn't over stress anything too far. I can almost feel the pain of your sore muscles and joints. There are several versions of Excedrin. One of them, Bone and Body, contains no caffeine so you can take it to relieve the pain and not interfere with sleep.

Hope you are up and running again real soon.

Oh, and if the rental outfit doesn't eat the rental charge, I would probably not drop it and go on. They need a wakeup call.

Pat

I agree with Pat. I would also pursue legal actions against the company - not for monetary compensation but because they refuse to acknowledge their responsibility for maintaining the most rudimentary and basic safety mechanism on their equipment.

I think I rented that same backhoe in Florence, SC. I couldn't make the darned thing work with a dam. One of the drillers working onsite with me saw my problems and promptly took over. After watching him operate it, I could see why it was in such sad shape and why most people didn't bother complaining. It worked fine for him but I'm not one to drive a tractor while leaning over the back of a backwards facing seat using only the FEL as a brake.

 

[charlz]

Sounds like they could have done the right thing and refunded a little bit of money. I'd get one of those 'junk yard dawg' personal injury lawyers

 

[dmccarty]

Sounds like they could have done the right thing and refunded a little bit of money. I'd get one of those 'junk yard dawg' personal injury lawyers

And the local TV station.

We all make mistakes. And I can see how you just wanted to get the job done and did not have a lot of options.

The problem here is that the company is going to get someone killed. You was almost IT.

As someone with an iffy back I hope you did not mess yours up. A back is one of those things that once its gone it really does not come back. If it only costs you $200 for the lesson then it was a cheap class. If you hurt your back, not so much.

This place needs to be out of business.

Good Luck,
Dan

 

[Treemonkey1000]

That rental company probably has in teeny tiny little print on the documents that you signed releasing them of liability. Do I think that is right that they rented that piece of Ca-ca? No I don't. Do you have the right to stir them up and fix that thing? Yes you do. So I wouldn't let it rest. The Mechanic admitting that the seat wasn't quite right would help you. Although you don't have that in writing..

 

[JCS_in_KY]

I went to the doctor this afternoon. He took some x-rays to be on the safe side and luckily everything looks to be ok. It's just really sore and stiff so he gave me some exercises to do to try to help with that. Also gave me a script for a few muscle relaxants in case I need them over the next few days. Looks like it's just going to take some time. It's just frustrating when I've got an open trench here that I'd like to get some pipe laid in before it rains again.

I'm going to contact the BBB. We haven't lived in KY for long so I'm not familiar with what state agency covers rental equipment or for that matter if there is one but I intend to research that this evening and contact them tomorrow if there is one. At this point I'll just go ahead and file a complaint if I can and forget about trying to talk with the rental company because they just don't care.

 

[JCS_in_KY]

I'd like to pursue legal action against them not to try and get rich from this happening but to hopefully prevent this or worse from happening to others in the future. Unfortunately the personal injury attorneys won't take the case on a contingency unless I have bad enough injuries to make it worth their while money wise. I'd spend the money on it myself just to prove a point to this rental company but unfortunately I can't afford to do that. I'm going to file complaints with everyone I can file a complaint with though and try to get the word out to as many people as I can. Unfortunately too many people don't care and are willing to take the equipment just the way it is. They lose little or no business over the poor quality equipment so in their minds there is no reason to fix anything.

 

[PILOON]

Over the years I was involved with 2 rental firms.

The first shop was so overly concerned with safety issues (and overall quality of his rental fleet) that he'd refuse rental an any equipment that had not sustained his rigorous inspection!
Every power tool would be demo'd and tested in front of the client prior to rental.
In this fashion he did final verification as well as demo proper usage.

The other shop were more interested in 'cash in the pocket' and always took the client's word for return condition (saw new log splitter returned with a bent hitch pole!).
More often than not they'd rent a tool based on prior renter's word that all went well.
Many a time power cords were mashed carbide bits trashed etc etc.
Most times 2 pulls on a chain saw would leave you with a cord in your hands and for chain oil they used old automatic transmission oil (unfiltered)!

WEll shop #1 went on to be a LARGE multi location business now worth mega bucks.

The second 'quick buck bros' went bankrupt, ate up their parents estate with one of the 2 bros forever robbing the other of his share of profits.

They say what comes around goes around,, well bro#1 (good bro) died of narural causes and bro#2 screwed his sister-in-law of her husband's share of the company (he liquidated assets for cash) and forced the elderly mother to sell the realestate in order to settle his personal debts.

He is diabetic! and now sports 2 amputated limbs!, funny but in our small community there is not the slightest pity for him.

 

[JCS_in_KY]

Hopefully the way this place does business will come back to get them in the end and I just hope that no one gets hurt before it happens. Ironically the reason I rented this backhoe was to finish a job I started two weeks before with a ditch witch I rented from another rental company. I have about 1200' of trenching to complete and I thought I'd get it all done in one long weekend with the ditch witch. Well the chain on it turned out to be so dull it wouldn't cut worth a darned. I hit my old waterline a time or two, it was 1" PVC and that ditch witch was so bad that hitting the PVC about stalled it. I ended up finally getting about 1/4 of the total work done with it and decided after that little ordeal I'd rent the backhoe to finish the job and you see how that worked out. When I returned that ditch witch I told them what was wrong with it (besides the dull chain it also had two tires that kept going flat so I'd have to stop and fill them about every hour). That rental company did end up refunding about 50% of my rental cost but they never fixed the trencher. They told me they were just going to put it back out for rent and maybe if people complained about it in the future they might do something. This was the same place I'd rented a compactor from last year and on the third start the cord came off in my hand. I called them and they wouldn't me fix it, I had to return it to them and trade it for another one which they did with no problems but it was 100 miles of extra driving for me. Unfortunately it seems too many people have low standards for rental equipment so the rental companies can get away with renting this junk out and the majority of the people never complain about it. I think given my previous luck with rentals and this close call I had with this backhoe that I'm done renting. I've purchased all of the other equipment I need with the exception of the hoe and I think I may have to start saving up for one. Putting a little money out is better than sitting / laying around now with a sore lower back and at the same time being thankful that it wasn't more serious than that.
John

 

[MikeD74T]

JCS, If you feel strongly that the backhoe is unsafe, I believe it is unsafe, you can lodge a complaint with your consumer protection division even if you're not injured enough for a vulture to take your case.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/KRS/367-00/CHAPTER.HTM sections .120 &.150 say the AG is authorized & obligated to take action to protect the public safety.

Kentucky: Office of the Attorney General - Home form to initiate action.

Don't know about Kentucky but in New Hampshire calls to the AG get returned. Good luck, MikeD74T

 

[3RRL]

Great links Mike,
I would encourage calling them to file the complaint.
Like I said before, their reaction to your accident is inexcusable and I wouldn't forget it for a long time.
It's just not right.