What's your stupidest accident ever?

[Sun Baked]

All i can say is never ride a bike home with 24 cans of pepsi perched on the handlebars i stil have no idea why i tried to do that, you'd think an engineer would know better

Yes, an engineer would know that only beer is worth the potential risk.

Plus, the accident is soo much easier to explain when beer is involved.

 

[barneygumble]

Yes, an engineer would know that only beer is worth the potential risk.

Plus, the accident is soo much easier to explain when beer is involved.

At the time beer was way to expensive, and they were on special, you understand

 

[Doctor Q]

All i can say is never ride a bike home with 24 cans of pepsi perched on the handlebars

And never do what my dad did either.

As part of my continuing efforts to torture my hands, I hurt myself again last night. It was a MacRumors-related accident, in fact.

I was at home posting in the forums when somebody in the house said something suddenly. I whirled around in my swivel chair to answer, but managed to slide it sideways at the same time so that my left index finger got pinched between the arm of the chair and the edge of my desk. It wasn't a serious injury, just one that scraped off enough skin right below the nail to let my insides leak out. I had to clean up blood on the desk and floor.

It's a little harder for me to type today. Instead of my usual 100 words per minute, I'm afraid I'm down to only 98 or 99.

 

[UKnjb]

---- I'm afraid I'm down to only 98 or 99.

And, as usual, every one a gem.

 

[Boggle]

Second story. In the summer of 92 I was mountain biking in Scotland w/ my uncle Alesdair and a bunch of guys from the north shore oil rigs. After making it most of the way down we all decided to race to the "car park." This was done down a rather steep straight-away @ high speed. Unfortunately, I'm American and had forgot that the handbrakes on bikes are reversed in the UK, and of course I made this minor error @ somewhere around 35 mph. I lost total control of the bike & went ass-over-teakettle and even more unluckily, I just missed a white Ford Cortina. Not hitting the car was bad b/c there was a big ditch behind it, into which I flew, or rather crashed. I rolled to a stop, jumped up & turned to shout, "I"m O---" but never got to finish b/c the bike caught up w/ me and took its revenge on my face.

However, this was not the end of my humiliation. While my uncle was riding and I was walking my bike back through the outskirts of Aberdeen we came across a man passed out drunk on the sidewalk. This being 1992, we had no cell phone to call for an ambulance. The man had soiled himself, and vomited. There were traces of blood. So my uncle and I do rock / paper / scissors to see who will have to clear this guys throat and I lost (godsdamn useless rock). So there I am, a bloody tire-marked mess, kneeling over a drunken scotsman & clearing his throat of vomit w/ my finger while my uncle stands in the road trying to flag down a car, and get someone to call for an ambulance.

Of course repeatedly sticking my finger down the drunk's throat eventually made him gag and wake up. At which time he promptly vomited all over my hand as I tried to sit him up and turn him away from me. We waited an hour b4 the ambulance showed up. The EMTs (or whatever scotland used then) were pretty disinterested and not at all gentle as they picked the guy up & practically threw him into the ambulance. And b/c this is July in Aberdeen, yes it was raining the whole time.

Needless to say, I've had better days.

 

[w_parietti22]

Just today I was trying to go upstairs at school and I turned around to talk to someone and then I walked into the railing which was kinda on the side of the stairs and there's like a hole next to it. lol. Yeah. Hard to explain. But it was really embarrassing.

 

[Sun Baked]

...

It's a little harder for me to type today. Instead of my usual 100 words per minute, I'm afraid I'm down to only 98 or 99.

OMG, the trauma from having your ability to post impaired must be more painful than the injury.

 

[Doctor Q]

Second story...

Needless to say, I've had better days.

I admire you for what you did. You helped that man and maybe saved his life. Sounds like an awful experience, but perhaps in hindsight it was actually a day to feel good about.

I saw a drunk fall out of his car door into the street while I was walking near school one day, and I helped him get to the sidewalk (we then called the police for help, since he clearly shouldn't have been left alone or gotten back into his car), but I don't know that I could/would have done all that you did for that stranger.

 

[erickkoch]

When I was 12 I got the bright idea of stuffing bits of wax into my air rifle so I could shoot indoors when I was home alone and not worry about breaking anything.

Then I got bored and thought, "I wonder what would happen if I shot my finger with this?".

I did, and the tip of my finger looked like a red cherry tomato. I got the biggest blood blister I've ever seen. I was hopping around and cursing more than any 12 year-old has a right to. It was quite painful.

 

[Boggle]

I admire you for what you did. You helped that man and maybe saved his life. Sounds like an awful experience, but perhaps in hindsight it was actually a day to feel good about.

I saw a drunk fall out of his car door into the street while I was walking near school one day, and I helped him get to the sidewalk (we then called the police for help, since he clearly shouldn't have been left alone or gotten back into his car), but I don't know that I could/would have done all that you did for that stranger.

Thanks! That was really nice of you to say, I appreciate it. In all fairness though, I can be a real arrogant bastard most of time.

 

[crackpip]

I was in the temporary weight room at my university, which was a room that normally housed several basketball courts. This is before spring break so it's really crowded with people trying to get a six pack before going to the beach. I had been lifting consistently for a year or two, and I decided to switch up my routine a little bit, and add powercleans, which involves holding the bar down by your hips and jerking it up to shoulder level with your elbows below it, pointing down. First time I do it, I lose my balance and fall backwards. Somehow I had the presence of mind to push the bar away from me so when I fell, it didn't fall on top of me; it probably would have broken my pelvis. But of course, the bar did fall. 135 pounds crashed to the floor, echoing all around the room. It took me a while to get my credibility back with the regulars.

My other really embarrassing moment, was when I was teaching martial arts last October. I've been a practitioner for about 15 years, and had my own school at the university for 10. So I'm leading the advanced class through spin and jump spin kicks, while there is a large group of students from one of the rival styles outside the room watching. They're waiting for us to finish, so they can use the room. Wouldn't it be great to the see the instructor fall on his ass? Yup, exactly what I did. Experimenting with body positioning and bam, supporting leg slips. What made matters worse, is that in the fall, I cracked the ring finger on my left hand. <shakes head>

crackpip

 

[Nanda Devi]

A few years ago, while camping I was whittling a stick and (like the genius I am) started cutting towards myself. Stabbed myself nice and deep in the heel of my right hand, then had to paddle a canoe for 3 more days.

Did almost the exact same thing on a backpacking trip in Colorado two years ago... only I was cutting into a brick of Gruyere, towards myself, stupidly.

My boyfriend said, "be careful with that knife..." and a half-second later I had sliced it through a 2-inch flap of skin over the knuckle of my thumb. Didn't sever the flap entirely though.

It bled like crazy but we were already 6 miles out with two miles more to go to our destination (a hot spring at 11,000 feet) and I didn't want to turn back so I wrapped the thumb up in a wad of gauze and bandaids and pressed on.

Next day, hiked out and tried to take the bandages off. They were all stuck to the wound and I couldn't get them off. Went to the ER and got 6 stiches. Still have quite a scar, probably because I waited so long to get it sewn up.

ND

 

[jadekitty24]

Photo please!


Oh and is that a new avatar? Nice kitty.

Yes, that's my cat. She was my first avatar and I've decided to go back to my roots.
As for the photo...it was pretty gruesome, and the few photos I took at the time are barf-worthy.

 

[mpw]

Well I just got back from A&E (that's like an ER for those in the US but of course it's FREE waiting time before treatment was just 10mins too.).
I was trying to load the dishwasher and got one of those foil wrapped dishwasher tablets out of the cupboard but dropped it and it obviously got all broken up into power/granuals.

So I picked it up and tore at the foil when it burst open and I got an eyeful of powered dishwasher detergant/salt/rinse-aid (funny it's a 4-in-1 tablet but I don't know what the 4th element is?). Stung and burnt like hell and even after flushing it immediately with water it felt like my eye was on fire and full of grit. Ouch!

Anyway, no lasting damage although my eye is scarred and due to the dyes they put in it looks like I've got a black eye today.

...Next thing I know I'm getting up from the ice and my lip/top of my mouth feels numb.... ...ice... ...tooth... ...I landed head first onto the ice, top front tooth went through my bottom lip before snapping off...

I think MR member Peyton had a similar experience...

*

*some, or all, of this story has been made-up.

 

[CoMpX]

When I was about 4, I was walking over to the toy box and I tripped on something and I hit my chin on the edge of the toy box. My upper teeth went through my bottom lip. Nasty. No scars though.

When I was like 10, I was riding my bike and I saw this girl that I liked. I went to wave and my tire got stuck in between the grass and the sidewalk. I flipped the handlebars and that was the end of my ego.

 

[Doctor Q]

When I was like 10, I was riding my bike and I saw this girl that I liked. I went to wave and my tire got stuck in between the grass and the sidewalk. I flipped the handlebars and that was the end of my ego.

I have similar proof that girls are a bike riding hazard. I was once riding with my girlfriend, and I was leading, when we came to some tracks from a former rail car line. They were indented strips, not raised. I wanted to warn her to cross them at a steep angle so her tire wouldn't fall into the slot, so I turned my head around back toward her while still riding, but I couldn't steer as well that way, and my own tire fell into the slot. In an instant, I felt my head hit the pavement. I reportedly survived.

 

[MarkCollette]

When I was a little boy I was jumping up onto a concrete ledge over and over. I tripped and smashed my face on the corner, and chipped my tooth.

I was on a city bus, and was showing someone how high I could kick, when the bus stopped abruptly, and I found myself on my back pretty quick.

Once, when I was bicycling without my hands, because I was eating a Wendy's frosty, I biked up onto the sidewalk, and when the sidewalk ended, I jumped the curb without my hands, and my front tire went into a fissure in the road, causing me to wipe and and spill frosty everywhere. My legs were caught in the bike, so I couldn't even get up for a while.

When I was 15, I got hit by a mini van in a driveway.

I was bicycling down a hill, passing a bunch of school busses (from my school) on the right hand side, when one of them started to turn right at the intersection. I slammed on my brakes and slid on some gravel, rolled onto the road, and had a car run over my foot. Luckily, my foot wasn't hurt, and the bus didn't run me over too.

A couple weeks ago, I had this chick over, and we were really getting into it, and I had her on the edge of the bed, and I broke both the box spring frame, and the mattress itself. I also cut my foot on some metal part of the bed and bled on the floor. It took me a while to realise that it was me who was bleeding.

The other night me and some friends were at a pub, and one of the said she had taken Taekwondo, so I drunkenly suggested she prove it. I just played defence, doing blocks, or holding her, but it started rachetting up, and she started getting some of those punches in. Eventually we made out a little The next morning (yesterday) I woke up, hung over, and found that parts of my face were sore, my head ached, and I had a wierd bruise on my shoulder. I think that next time I'll just take someone's word if they claim to have martial arts skills

 

[vniow]

When I was about 7 or so I had a rabbit and a hutch to put him in. one day I was climbing on top of it for some reason (I think I threw something up there) and I fell. The webbing inbetween my thumb and forefinger got sliced upen by fencing that was pointing upward. It was the first time I actually saw real muscle

I don't remember this one but around 4 I think, I was in my mom's car at a friend or hers' house and I reached out the window to pet her dog. The dog didn't take kindly to it and bit me in the back of my head, taking a decent sized chunk out of it. My mom rushed me to the hospital and my dad met us there and he was freaking out. It got all healed up but apparently the dog bit out the section of my brain that was supposed to remember it so its all a blank.

I still have the scar from that one, left me with a wee bit of a bald spot in the back of my head.

 

[mpw]

When I was about 7 or so I had a rabbit ...

...oh it continues, ah that makes more sense for a 7year old.

 

[d_and_n5000]

I used to be really good at riding my bike with no hands on the handlebars when I was about 11. I could even go about halfway up a 45 degree hill without holding on and almost make turns. Then, one day, I suddenly lost my balance in front ofthe American Legion post near my house. I hit the handlebar to my chest, which left about a 1 cm diameter scrape there, then I actually fell off, and scraped up the entire left side of my face. Not to mention my glasses, which flew off and were run over . Then, I walked home bawling, and my dad took me to the ER to makie sure I didn't screw up my head. Since then I've had some issues with paying attention

Not to mention one of my classmates - she was at volleyball practice, and another girl dived, took her feet out from under her, and she broke her right ankle. Fast-forward 9 months. She tries jumping into a jumprope in Phys. Ed., falls, and herts her ankle. At first they think that she just "severely sprained" her left ankle, but it turns out she chipped the bone. She's currently in a cast for that one.

 

[virividox]

when i was 3 i put my hand on the top of the ricecooker, took all my skin off

 

[Blue Velvet]

I thought of another dumb thing I did to my hands: the time I picked up a food skewer not realizing that it had just come out of the oven.

Ow. Reminds me of my own stupidity when I was a design student and in the 3D workshop. Came up behind a fellow student and grabbed a brass rod they were holding... except only seconds before they had been applying a brazing torch to it and were holding it in a mitt.

As I touched it, there was a sizzle and my skin stuck onto it. Strangely, after the first split-second of pain it felt cold... probably the nerves in my hand being traumatised. Spent the next 2 weeks with my right arm in a sling and was unable to grasp objects properly for a month or so.

Right at this very moment, the big toe on my left foot is throbbing due to walking into the back of someone while wearing open-toed sandals yesterday. Caught on the back of their shoes, lifted the nail up, much blood, sinking to my knees in the middle of rush-hour Kings Cross station concourse, stifling the urge to scream.

 

[Doctor Q]

I wonder when this thread will be made into a horror movie? Will we all get residuals?

 

[MarkCollette]

I was in inudstrial arts in junior high school, messing about with bits of wood and the disk sander. I was trying to sand away the last of a piece of wood, when my finger slipped, and I sanded away a chunk of my thumb, including some of the nail. Luckily it all grew back ok.

I was doing framing with my brother one summer. I was precariously balanced high on a ladder, trying to nail a block of wood to the wall with a nail gun, when I swayed on the ladder, and shot a nail into my chest, barely avoiding puncturing my lung. I didn't have to wait long to see a doctor, with all the blood staining my white t-shirt

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

The stupidest thing I've done that could have killed me probably were on my ride-on garden tractor.

A few winters ago I decided it would be fun to drive down a hill in neutral in the middle of a snow storm (aka to see how fast it could go). Mind you, this is a small tractor - 15 horse, not too heavy, and coupled with a snow plow up front. The street I started driving down is awfully long and awfully steep. Right after I start going down the grade, I throw the stick shift into neutral (from 6th, so I was going fast already). Within seconds, I'm going at least 30 MPH down a snow covered street with cars parked on both sides on a tractor with a large metal object attached to the front. Freaking out, I slam the clutch to slow down, but this locks up the tires and induces a skid. The tractor is now spinning - still going extremely fast - and passing close to the parked cars. To avoid a SUV that was nearly striaght ahead, I turn the wheel which causes the tractor to lift up on two wheels, and make an 180 degree turn which sends me straight into a small stone wall after jumping the curb. Aside from bending the plow blade, and popping a front tire, the tractor was fine - I was still pretty freaked out.

The other time I was just being stupid, and drove the tractor into my deck because I wasn't looking forward. I fell off the tractor, and twisted my ankle.