Stenson Lock ..............

[Guest]

What Ange said /\ /\

[mayalld]

I don't mind a little bit of pain as in a twisted ankle walking along a lock side, what I do object to is a serious head injury after I've missed the walkway on the other gate and plummeted head first into the lock.

 

What's the rush any way??

 

In my case it isn't about rush, it is just sometimes the safest and most practical option FOR ME. For other people in identical circumstances it may not be.

 

Interestingly, one of the accidents that I mentioned, caused by slipping on a muddy patch in long grass, actually ended up with me clinging on having almost fallen into the lock on top of the boat.

[LoneWolf]

Each to their own I say. My Dave is confident and agile and routinely steps safely across the gates. I don't have his confidence so I walk round. No one should call Dave foolhardy or accuse him of showing off, just as no one should condemn me for being a bit too cautious.

 

Too right Ange.

 

I must say dave is amazingly confident with the old stepover and I think i know him well enough by now to say he is neither foolhardy or a show off

 

 

I've just remembered something. One of the lockies told me he 'wasn't supposed to'. I wonder if this is specifically mentioned in the H&S training

[Guest]

In my case it isn't about rush, it is just sometimes the safest and most practical option FOR ME. For other people in identical circumstances it may not be.

 

Interestingly, one of the accidents that I mentioned, caused by slipping on a muddy patch in long grass, actually ended up with me clinging on having almost fallen into the lock on top of the boat.

 

Then your risk assessment was flawed, should you have slipped crossing to the far gate I would wager you would have had a lot less to cling on to, and being at the end of the lock you would have likely ended up in the water and under the boat rather than on top of it...

 

For me?? no.

[LoneWolf]

Then your risk assessment was flawed, should you have slipped crossing to the far gate I would wager you would have had a lot less to cling on to, and being at the end of the lock you would have likely ended up in the water and under the boat rather than on top of it...

 

For me?? no.

 

nah, it doesn't work like that - sometimes accidents happen

 

The worst i've hurt myself lockside was when i slipped in the dewy muddy grass puling the boat back in a lock and landed on my elbow

My risk assessment said pull it back so i could go down the ladder onto the anti slip clear bit instead of the woodpile

 

I made sure i recorded it on the H&S accident page in the CaptainsLog and have amended the risk assessment mental checklist to include checking footing e.g. by giving an experimental pull first

 

so the risk assessment wasn't wrong, it just needed something else as well

[jelunga]

You assume that stepping over is more dangerous.

 

I have never had an accident stepping over a gate. I have slipped and hurt myself twice walking round instead.

I would suggest the consequences of failure are more serious stepping across the gate, potentially knocking yourself out and drowning than tripping/ slipping on the lockside. Ok, it is possible to trip on the lockside and crack your head open on the concrete or a bollard but at least the ambulance would not have to recover your body from a watery lock.

I apogise to those here that do this stepping across thing, maybe I was too rude suggesting they were showing off or deranged. But I feel strongly about taking uneccessary risks. A collegue of mine broke the rules by walking between two stationary buses in the yard instead of obeying the safety rules and walking down the marked safe walkway which took 30 seconds longer to get to the canteen for his break. He was about 2 weeks from retirement and had been a bus driver most of his life. He was crushed to death when another driver made a mistake, started the engine and accidentally engaged reverse without checking.

[Maffi]

Same here - never ever mustered up the courage to do it when we where based in the Midlands.

 

There was a good tip on here (From possibly Alan F or Chertsey ) about using a short pole with a hook on to grasp the rail of the other gate as you step across but we moved before I got chance to try it.

 

 

If you are operating the lock you have a short pole with which to hook on to the other gate rail, its called a windlass.

[Guest]

If you are operating the lock you have a short pole with which to hook on to the other gate rail, its called a windlass.

 

ah ...thanks still ain't using one though..

[ditchcrawler]

What risk assessment would you do before standing on a wet steel deck over an unguarded spinning bronze 3 bladed body chopper.ie. prop.?

[cheshire~rose]

Dave has just suggested to me that if he were to do a risk assesment on what he has to do after he gets out of bed in the morning he would probably stay in bed .........

 

I just reminded him he actually managed to fall out of bed last night!

[jelunga]

What risk assessment would you do before standing on a wet steel deck over an unguarded spinning bronze 3 bladed body chopper.ie. prop.?

If it was pissing down with rain blowing a gale, I would get SWMBO to steer whilat I made her a cup of tea.

But I suppose risk assessment is about rwducing the risk to an acceptable level but soing a job differently, using appropriate equipement or changing methods of doing it.

Lock hopping is a risk that can be reduced by doing a job another way.

Standing on a wet steel deck steering could be made safer by fitting rings to the boat and clipping on a safety harness. But is that reasonable to do?

[mrsmelly]

I don't mind a little bit of pain as in a twisted ankle walking along a lock side, what I do object to is a serious head injury after I've missed the walkway on the other gate and plummeted head first into the lock.

 

What's the rush any way??

 

I am with you all the way. There is no hurry and just adding more danger unecesarily is silly realy. I learn by my ( and others ) mistakes whenever possible so after seeing my very experienced wife slip and fall neither of us take the silly risk anymore simples.

 

Tim

[LoneWolf]

What risk assessment would you do before standing on a wet steel deck over an unguarded spinning bronze 3 bladed body chopper.ie. prop.?

 

ok - these are the things i do to reduce risk of being chopped by the prop

Well first off i check that i have appropriate non slip shoes on and i'm not drunk etc

I dont leave the boat in gear when i'm off it - in fact when i'm on and off at locks i push the button in so if the stick gets knocked its still in neutral.

I'm always in front of the tiller

Probably others but it's getting late

 

 

Longer term I'd be keeping an eye on the state of the anti-slip paint on the deck as well

[Ally]

2 separate people fell in above Barrow Deep today, a woman and a child......scary moments, but both ok.

[Tuscan]

A very good friend of mine died one frosty morning crossing the lock gate to his cottage about 12 years ago. I now cross lock gates with great care and my wife walks round rather than steps over narrow locks. It worries me seeing very young children with windlasses running across however I am fatalist when your number is up .......

[Midnight Rider]

Now hang on a bit. I can either open a bottom gate on a narrow lock & step across (&fall in) or open the same gate, walk over the top gate & still fall in (as at Stenson). What's the difference? You just do what you think is best for you.

[nb Innisfree]

Everyone has their own limitations, the agile and the less agile, but the only way to find that limitation is to exceed it, then in future you know how far you can go. The skill lies in judging when that limit is near and approaching that limit with caution and safety. Best done when you are young and can withstand the consequences when you are learning and getting it wrong. Some people choose never to take any sort of risk in their lives and so become less skilled in their judgement later in life.

[magpie patrick]

Then your risk assessment was flawed, should you have slipped crossing to the far gate I would wager you would have had a lot less to cling on to, and being at the end of the lock you would have likely ended up in the water and under the boat rather than on top of it...

 

For me?? no.

 

I know we are not talking filling out paperwork here, but there is a need to be careful of generic risk assessments. I can think of at least two locks in Birmingham where there is no choice but to cross the gates to work the paddle on one side because there is access down only one side of the lock. Admittedly the locks in question have only one gate at each end snd can be worked from one side only

 

 

This is the one built in this manner before anyone worried about such things, the other one, which I'm struggling to find an image of, is in the Aston flight and the reason you can't get down one side is it is under a railway viaduct and the "three bollards" policy resulted in the middle bollard blocking an already narrow fairway. A case of generic assessment trumping actually looking at the site before making a decision

[LEO]

A very good friend of mine died one frosty morning crossing the lock gate to his cottage about 12 years ago. I now cross lock gates with great care and my wife walks round rather than steps over narrow locks. It worries me seeing very young children with windlasses running across however I am fatalist when your number is up .......

 

Hi,

 

Was that at Peters 2?, very sad..

 

Leo.

[mykaskin]

If you are operating the lock you have a short pole with which to hook on to the other gate rail, its called a windlass.

 

I can't think of a more dangerous way of misusing a tool. Windlasses aren't designed to hook on, and will happily slip off any rail or out of any hand. The windlass should be attached firmly to your body (in a belt for example) allowing you to use both hands to grip the rails.

 

Mike

[Guest]

I know we are not talking filling out paperwork here, but there is a need to be careful of generic risk assessments. I can think of at least two locks in Birmingham where there is no choice but to cross the gates to work the paddle on one side because there is access down only one side of the lock. Admittedly the locks in question have only one gate at each end snd can be worked from one side only

 

Things seem to have a got a bit confused in this thread MP.

 

So to be clear -

 

I'm not saying I won't cross gates - ever. I'm saying on a narrow lock with two gates at the bottom I'm personally not happy to step across from one closed gate to the open one and vice versa.

 

I am obviously more than happy to cross double gates or single gates like the one in your picture.

 

ed to add - quite often the boat roof if it's at an appropriate level is a convenient and safer crossing point anyway and thus avoids the need to step across the gap or walk right around the lock each and every time one needed to cross.

 

From memory this would often be the case on sections of the T&M.

Edited August 22, 2012 by The Dog House

[pagan witch]

OK folks - It is good to see some sense prevail. I'm the guy Bargiepat - my friend Patrick quoted.

 

It is good to see a balanced view - life is dangerous - how we manage that danger is up to us but I am totally sure that the 'safer' you make things the more dangerous they become as common sense receeds into history.

 

I served for 12 years as a Special Constable for Debryshire Police - and also for a time as part of the out of hours doctors's service so I'm lucky enough to have been on more first aid courses than I care to remember.

 

Final update (the lady's husband phoned me yesterday) . . . She has a broken wrist that should be fixed in around 6 weeks. She has some pretty nasty grazes and bruises which should fix sooner thatn that. She has had every scan going as far as I can tell and has no lasting damage - full return of all motor skills and memory. All in all it has been worked out (no idea how) that she was under for around 7 minutes.

 

What I did was pretty scary, but being stood watching not knowing what to do would have been terrifying. I'm no hero - just did what needed doing. The only thing I did was put my training into practice.

 

I'll not be returning to the thread - as far as I am concerned I'd like to forget it - job done - just my way of dealing with the situation. My 'release' is my photography, please forgive me for the plug - but if you want to see what I get up to - this is me http://society6.com/PICSL8

 

Now - do something useful . . . Go learn first aid - even the basics - just do it. So far I've saved 2 lives because of my first aid trainig - and I promise I'm no one special. I most sincerely hope I do not make the hat trick.

 

Steev

[Ally]

Good to hear she is surviving remarkably well considering what she went through!!

[cheshire~rose]

It does certainly sound like this lady is made of some seriously touch stuff to have come out of that ordeal with such minor injuries - It is perhaps a wonder that she did not sink one of the boats on the way down with her strengh!

It is wonderful news and I know everyone was so worried about her when we first heard the news it is certainly a relief

Edited August 22, 2012 by cheshire~rose

[Richard T]

 

 

Now - do something useful . . . Go learn first aid - even the basics - just do it.

Steev

 

Hear hear

and well done Steev for being there and having the confidence to act in the way you did.