Up in Aspen when they're building the X-Games Slopestyle course and Halfpipe, they use winch-cats... which is basically just one big-azz snowcat at the top of a run pulling up another one by a huge winch so it can make it up the pitches. When they snap... holy smokes.
Back when i was skiing competitively, I made it onto a run with a winch cat on it somehow, and got BITCHED at by a few of my coaches. scared the piss out of them. But I'm sure there is way worse jobs out there. This just came to mind...
I think it varies from year to year. A few years ago my job(Communications workers who climb towers) had the highest fatality rate. I think all the usual players(crabbers, loggers, miners, etc...) bounce around in the top ten. Most are boom & bust industries, and whenever there's a boom cycle, companies and workers are scrambling to make the big bucks. Corners get cut, chances are taken, higher percentage of rookies on the job. Recipe for bad things to happen.
Most "dangerous jobs" are perfectly safe........until you pfukk up!
Working in a stop & rob ranks right up there believe it or not. Highway workers as well. The high tension workers that climb them towers inches from death.
Last weekend my hunting buddy and I were driving back to Rapid City from the Pierre gunshow. Just about to Midland SD when I noticed a couple of guys working in the top of a microwave tower 300-400 ft up in a 10 mph or so wind. Made my hair stand on end just looking at it.Thought plowing snow sucked in a blizzard but its a piece a cake compared to that. magnum Man
In the 70's - was a protective services worker in an inner city -going in child abuse cases after hours- it was ugly - almost ate it several times and you do not forget babies and kids with burns and hair torn out, especially when they resist leaving the only home they know, even when they are bleeding in front of you. a worker in our area just was killed last month.
Smokejumpers falling out of 80 foot trees; this where most serious injuries used to occur.
Unless you solidly hang-up with the canopy solidly over the top of the tree, it can slip off and you'll drop like a rock to the ground (hard on legs and ankles).
For let-downs, they now use tensioners so that if the let-down rope slips, it will lock. Previously, you had to feed the rope through your hands and if it slipped,you'd drop.
Of course, you'd have to climb back up the tree to pull, cut and un-snag the parachute from the tree once the fire was out, and guys would fall here too. It was tough swinging a Pulaski with one hand while balancing on a tree limb without a rope to tie yourself to the tree.
Daytona was a wash so I watched a logging show on the History channel. Tree big enough to kill you and cables flying around. No thanks.
Roughnecks, that has to be fairly wild.
Those crazy [bleep] working on big wind mills.
What is the most dangerous job?
Don't know "most", but here in logging country it's considered pretty damn dangerous.
Having cut down thousands of trees myself (mostly small, some big, none huge) I concur. Everything about it- from the tool to the terrain- will get ya.
Being a neo-con when TRH or Bristoe or ColeYounger are sittin' around the fire can get your azz scorched a bit. Not that I am a neo-con, mind you, for I am not, but when those bad boys get to tag-teaming a wayward neo-con that wanders into an RP thread, well, lets just say a pirahna feedin' frenzy ain't got nothin' on those lads.
Being a neo-con when TRH or Bristoe or ColeYounger are sittin' around the fire can get your azz scorched a bit. Not that I am a neo-con, mind you, for I am not, but when those bad boys get to tag-teaming a wayward neo-con that wanders into an RP thread, well, lets just say a pirahna feedin' frenzy ain't got nothin' on those lads.
Don't worry, it generally seems to only be a momentary setback for the NeoCons.....
Back in the '70's there were only two occupation Lloyds of London wouldn't insure, one was a mercenary and the other was anyone involved in helicopter venison recovery in New Zealand.
Lots of dangerous jobs out there but those damm fools that drive logging trucks in the Rockies are the ballsiest guys on the planet. Watched a bunch of 'em last fall and I was scared just looking at what they were doing. No fricken way they could stop a loaded truck once they start down some of those grades and hundreds of feet of drop if they slide off the road. Jeezus, gives me shivers thinking about it again.
For as long as I been in my profession, it been ranked in the top ten most dangerous jobs you can have I fly airplanes and helicopters for a living.
I very confident in my ability when working at heights. My main concern is that I have to sit next to one of you guys, in order to get to the job site!
Damn helicopters have way too many moving parts. But I do like having the option of stopping, and turning around, when the vis goes to hell.
1. Fisherman, this includes crab fisherman 2. Loggers 3. Airplane pilots 4. Farmers and ranchers 5. Mining machine operator 6. Roofer 7. Sanitation worker (garbage truck guys) 8. Truck driver and delivery people 9. Industrial machine repairmen (millwright) 10. Police officer
Keep in mind the numbers are kinda wonky, its per 100,000 workers. There arent very many farmers compared to police officers so when one dies it has a bigger impact ratio wise.
Ive done five of these ten, logger, farmer/rancher, roofer, truck driver/deliveryman, and industrial machine repair and for sure if you let your mind wander, you get bit quick like.
"Dangerous" is a subjective term. Some jobs have critical incidents frequently, like the ones mentioned. Others have super high stress that take 20 years off the end of your life. Some have both.
Smokejumpers falling out of 80 foot trees; this where most serious injuries used to occur.
Unless you solidly hang-up with the canopy solidly over the top of the tree, it can slip off and you'll drop like a rock to the ground (hard on legs and ankles).
For let-downs, they now use tensioners so that if the let-down rope slips, it will lock. Previously, you had to feed the rope through your hands and if it slipped,you'd drop.
Of course, you'd have to climb back up the tree to pull, cut and un-snag the parachute from the tree once the fire was out, and guys would fall here too. It was tough swinging a Pulaski with one hand while balancing on a tree limb without a rope to tie yourself to the tree.
I lowered my reserve and climbed down it one night and dropped to the ground. The reserve was just long enough. It was a bit hard to tell at night though. Once you start sliding down that sucker, you are pretty much commited to continue.
Some interesting numbers, but I'll stick with Smokejumpers as having a higher fatality rate per 100,000. The numbers given in the listing show fisherman with 129 fatalities/100,000 and loggers with 116/100,000.
Smokejumping started in 1940 and there have been about 5,200 jumpers in the entire history of the program. There have been 23 fatalities. This calculates to: 100,000/5200 = 19.231 X 23 = 442.3 per 100,000 or about 4 times higher than other hazzardous jobs.
I do not know how many have been injured, but there have been a lot of broken legs, ankles, arms and backs. I'm sure the infury rate is higher also.
I am a fisherman cutting timber on my farm at this time. I wonder what is my expectation of future life? The link above does not give me a very bright future.
Smokejumpers falling out of 80 foot trees; this where most serious injuries used to occur.
Unless you solidly hang-up with the canopy solidly over the top of the tree, it can slip off and you'll drop like a rock to the ground (hard on legs and ankles).
For let-downs, they now use tensioners so that if the let-down rope slips, it will lock. Previously, you had to feed the rope through your hands and if it slipped,you'd drop.
Of course, you'd have to climb back up the tree to pull, cut and un-snag the parachute from the tree once the fire was out, and guys would fall here too. It was tough swinging a Pulaski with one hand while balancing on a tree limb without a rope to tie yourself to the tree.
I lowered my reserve and climbed down it one night and dropped to the ground. The reserve was just long enough. It was a bit hard to tell at night though. Once you start sliding down that sucker, you are pretty much commited to continue.
Standared Smokejumper tree let down procedure was to run the end of the 110' letdown rope through the 2 D" rings in the jump suit pants, through the risers and tie it off to the other riser. Then you'd take up ALL slack in the rope and release the capewells - if there was any slack, you'd drop and possibly pull the canopy from the tree and crash to the ground. then you'd slowly let the line pay out using the "D" rings as a tension device and lower your self to the ground. If you got to the end of the 110" rope, you'd tie off the rope to the harness and release one of the reserve attachments and cut the connecting strap between the 2 reserve risers, giving yourself another 60" or so. Now you'd slither out of your jump suit and climb down the reserve shroud lines. If after alll this, you were still not on the ground ... you were up the creek and no paddle.
I never had this problem, but on one tall tree California jump I did contact the top of a tall redwood, but the canopy slipped off and (I was told later) reinflated after a 100" fall; I still had a 120 foot or so ride down. Pucker factor was 6 on the 5 point scale.
I have lost more friends than I like to remember,logging...It can be deadly and they all were not, green horns.Chit just happens out there with everything going on around you and above you...Ear plugs ain't a good thing...
Growing up in a family that had been logging for three generations, I've never known someone who logged for any significant length of time who was not seriously injured at least once. Usually, there were several instances over the years involving, broken/crushed bones, severe cuts with chainsaws, and truck accidents.
Unless you solidly hang-up with the canopy solidly over the top of the tree, it can slip off and you'll drop like a rock to the ground (hard on legs and ankles).
Did just this in Ranger School. When I bounced off the tree and felt weightless before falling...definitely an "oh [bleep] this is going to hurt" moment. A few stiches and I was back at it. Feet and knees together!
A friend was a combat engineer in the 82d, where they jumped into the trees on purpose in order to cut a DZ/LZ.
I am a fisherman cutting timber on my farm at this time. I wonder what is my expectation of future life? The link above does not give me a very bright future.
I never had this problem, but on one tall tree California jump I did contact the top of a tall redwood, but the canopy slipped off and (I was told later) reinflated after a 100" fall; I still had a 120 foot or so ride down. Pucker factor was 6 on the 5 point scale.
Holy schit! That was a ride!
Some SF guys got to go to BLM Smokejumper school but I never did. There is a Smokejumper exhibit in the Air & Space museum at the Smithsonian if you ever make it there.
I think the most dangerous job is working around someone who is very inept and careless, and who is always in such a hurry that it does not matter to him if your head is under the backhoe bucket.
The other day, I was watching the logging show and I was amased at how careless some of those people were. It reminded me of a person that I used to work with. He would never look around to see where other workers were when he went to back up, or to cut a wire that would recoil. I think having to work around a person like this is the most dangerous job a person can have, regardless of what the job entails.
Inconsiderate can get you killed or injured quicker that anything.
I've sorted out wounded bears in the thick nasty stuff for mere wages, that'll get your attention.
I've also built and set a scaffold pulley, 6 sections up in winds gusting enough that I didn't think I could stay on the scaffolding, let alone make it to the top and raise a top heavy two pulley tree over my head to set it on the out corner of said scaffold on top of a 2x 6 for support. That had some serious pucker factor involved, when I got back on terra firma the crew said "we were just waiting and watching to see you sail offa there" oh well at least they didn't add hoping to the equation
but men, let me tell you sumpthin, you ain't known fear until you slip up and cut a 300 lb. woman's bangs too short and you're trying to convince her it makes her face look skinny!
I've known fear and looked death in the eye, specially in the latter case, but I didn't laugh in the face of either!
not diminishing in any way you guys that have dangerous jobs, but there's been a few instances in this life I'd have gladly traded places with you.
imagine gettin your azz whupped in your own place of bidness by a 300 lb. heffalump????
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