The day a 40 foot tall sewer pipe nearly fell on my head in Gary

We were doing a repair on a big old digester tank at a wastewater plant in Gary, Indiana. Foreman had us cutting out a section of pipe about 40 feet up. The crane operator was a kid, maybe 22 years old, and he misjudged the swing. That pipe section started swinging toward me like a slow motion wrecking ball. I jumped behind a concrete pillar about two seconds before it smacked into the scaffolding I was standing on. Bent the handrail like a paper clip. Nobody got hurt, but the safety guy had to change his pants. Whole job was behind schedule for a week after that. Any of you guys ever had a close call where the new guy almost took somebody out?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan46421d ago

That was a 40 foot pipe, not a sewer pipe.

derekgibson21d ago

So the "not a sewer pipe" part only matters if we know what it actually carried?