Runaway buggy...

[erkme73]

This one is actually quite serious. I contemplated sharing since it involves quite a bit of self-blame. But... for the benefit and enjoyment of others, here it is...

Backstory: I was driving around our vacation property in our 4-wheeler with my nearly 4yo son. He was properly buckled in on the passenger side of the bench seat. After driving around for a few minutes, he asked for his sippy cup. I pulled the buggy up next to the porch steps - which happens to be at a very steep incline - applied the emergency brake, and took the key out.

Since he was buckled in (and isn't strong enough to unbuckle himself), and his arms are too short to reach any of the controls or e-brake release, I let him sit there while I ran on to the porch to grab his cup. I didn't even make it to the cup before I heard the brake release. His legs were just long (and strong) enough to disengage the brake...



I ran after him (notice his sister screaming in the second angle). The ground there is a mix of loose gravel and sand on top of hard sandstone... essentially like trying to run on marbles. I managed to catch up to the buggy jump in and yank on the e-brake - but it was too late. It impacted the transformer enclosure at the bottom of the incline.

While the enclosure moved about 6" on the concrete pad, it didn't rupture, flip over, or otherwise expose the 1300V/240V legs underneath. This could have ended so much worse.

No damage to buggy, transformer, or son. It's been 7 weeks, and my right shoulder is still painful (may have done something to it yanking on the brake like a madman).

My son was screaming hysterically, "You can't leave me in the buggy by myself! People don't do that!" Like I wasn't blaming myself enough. Of course, he was completely right.

My 2 yo daughter continued to scream from the porch (which drove mom out of the house to see what the ruckus was all about). "Don't leave out me!" She was afraid we were leaving without her.

I hugged my boy extra hard/long that night.

 

[bababouy]

Yikes. Glad everyone is ok. Take the positive out of the situation and learn from it rather than beating yourself up. I saw a guy at the boat ramp one weekend, a couple of years ago, that had his kid in the backseat of the truck in a a car seat. He backed down the ramp to put his boat on the trailer. I walked over to the guy and told him that I was in no way trying to tell him how to do things, but the week before we watched a brand new Silverado go into the water because the guy left the truck in reverse when he got out. I would hate to see that happen with a kid strapped into a car seat. Thankfully this guy was one of the not so drunk guys coming back in from a day of fishing and took my advice pretty good. Our motto should be, if it could happen, it will. This same shit has happened to everyone on this forum so don't beat your self up about it.

 

[tangent]

Hopefully you had the power company out to inspect it. Even though it still works, there's potential for damage to wires.


This is basically what you're dealing with:

As for your shoulder two things to try:
-lie on top of a baseball/lax ball positioned by your shoulder blade. find the spot that hurts the most and lie there / do small circles on that spot.
-squat down, bend at the waist with one arm hanging down hold a dumbbell 20-40lbs moving mostly your hips to make your arm do 30-40 small circles each direction

 

[nayr]

My dad and I were pushing an old pickup truck out from behind the garage and it rolled off a short wall and broadsided our big ass propane tank, sent it rolling down into the ditch flipping it several times after of course breaking the main line off.. that was an ass puckering day.

apparently when I was a small child I dropped my dads rag top Impalla into neutral at a gas station and a fast acting clerk jumped in the open top and stopped it before it plowed through the front of the glass station.

I was a teenager driving an old big tractor to mow my grandma's acerage, stopped at a barbed wire 2 post gate to open up the horse pasture, was getting off and I kicked it into gear and drove it through the gate and got closelined off the top, landed on the mowing deck I was towing.. the tractor drove all the way across the field and crashed into a tree.

Shit happens, just be glad everyone went home

 

[Kawboy12R]

Lucky. Things could've been a lot worse. And I'd probably get that box checked out. It moved quite a bit and there might be poor connections inside now. Bad neutrals, imbalanced hot legs, etc can cause you electrical problems in the house. You'd be surprised at some of the weird stuff that can happen. With that being outdoors, it might even be screwing with your neighbors' power without you knowing it.

As for your shoulder, the rule of thumb is if it hurts for more than two weeks go see a physiotherapist. I ignored my sore shoulders and ended up with two torn rotator cuffs and a badly frozen shoulder. It took three months of physio three times a week to get the worst shoulder back in usable shape. Still hasn't been great for years but is pretty good now but the least bad one (go figure) still gives me trouble at the gym, probably because the worst shoulder got the most rehab.

 

[Bradmph]

Wow, that video put me on the edge of my seat. Incredible how fast we can move when it's our family in peril. You did great Dad, You buckled your kid and it seemed to save him from falling out. That is more then many others would do, so don't feel too bad on yourself. I would like to put a stop watch though on that 50 yard dash time. Glad all came out ok, the box can be fixed, kids are a bit harder to replace. Oh, one more question, lol. did wifey crack the whip. JK!

 

[erkme73]

Wow, that video put me on the edge of my seat. Incredible how fast we can move when it's our family in peril. You did great Dad, You buckled your kid and it seemed to save him from falling out. That is more then many others would do, so don't feel too bad on yourself. I would like to put a stop watch though on that 50 yard dash time. Glad all came out ok, the box can be fixed, kids are a bit harder to replace. Oh, one more question, lol. did wifey crack the whip. JK!

No, she was as grateful as I was that no one got hurt. She came out because my daughter was screaming like mad. By the time she showed up on the porch looking down at us it was over - and the only words exchanged, "Is the power in the house still on?"... "yeah..." After going inside, I pulled up the videos to show her what happened.

 

[tangent]

When I was a kid my dad got out of our SVU in the driveway with it in drive and went to grab something inside. At first the slope of the driveway held it more or less still, but within 30 seconds or so it idled forward and crashed into to cabinets in the garage.

 

[erkme73]

Hopefully you had the power company out to inspect it. Even though it still works, there's potential for damage to wires.

Lucky. Things could've been a lot worse. And I'd probably get that box checked out. It moved quite a bit and there might be poor connections inside now. Bad neutrals, imbalanced hot legs, etc can cause you electrical problems in the house. You'd be surprised at some of the weird stuff that can happen. With that being outdoors, it might even be screwing with your neighbors' power without you knowing it.

Both very good suggestions, and a legitimate cause for concern. One of the things that happened when the enclosure slipped over is that the framed hole in the concrete pad became visible. And as I looked in, two field mice hopped out - one carrying a little pinkie in his mouth. My dogs when ape-nuts. I managed to raise the enclosure/transformer using a 2" x 4", blocking it up just enough to look underneath with a flashlight. While I could easily see the cables (both supply and load) had no damage to the insulation, I could NOT see their termination on the lugs of the transformer. The movement certainly could have caused those to come loose enough to create problems.

There is currently very little load on the house as it sits empty (maybe 2-3kwh/day consumption). I may give the local power company a call tomorrow to let them know the box was moved and might need inspection. That booger is HEAVY.

ETA: Just fired off a contact form using their website - explaining the mea culpa - with an invitation come inspect any time.

 

[code2]

LMFao I'm sorry funny yet scary. BUT if mamma bear was there and saw what happen i bet like most women she would have been back flipping cart wheeling and super jumping in there while calling your a moron and a stupid idiot the whole time

 

[erkme73]

And... to follow up on the call to the power company about the moved transformer:



They were out there inspecting it this morning. I suppose they'll get back with me later this week to confirm what they found. But by the looks of it, there was no damage that required any fixing. It took the guy longer to cut the seal with bolt cutters, and re-install a new seal, than it did to inspect what was inside.

If they're happy, I'm happy.