or go here to see it a bit larger.

http://video.concretepumping.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7097425b52fc7afbb696

Ouch!
Any story on how it happened?

can you share to us how it happened?

The pump I was on that day had some maintenance issues which I was unaware of at the time, it was a work colleague's pump that I took out that day because he had to be at a wedding, I had a very young and unreliable line hand assigned to me that day and the final straw was when a complete novice pulled himself up onto the side of the pump-pulling the paddle lever on and the rest is history!!!

My employer has pleaded guilty to the charges from Work Place Health and Safety. My Employer was great to me, we had a good relationship and I felt he trusted me on his machines and I was confident opperating them. This was an absolute tragity and the worst day of my life but this goes to show you never no what's around the corner!!

All I can say is that...You can never be to safe in the workplace and that accident's can happen when you least expect them. Health and Safety!...It's VITAL!!!!!!

very lucky/fortunate to be alive.ive herd a few horror stories about aggitators and operators,the agg.. always won. very glad to see he made it.some pump mfg's have addressed this issue by hoppergrate safety switches and the rest need to.... enuff said ;this is what can happen or worse so fix it.

Man that really sucks i hope he recovers ok

Hope you get well soon, Todd. I just want to add my particular story in an effort to stop it happening to somebody else: Usually, on my old concrete pump, the paddle's hydraulics would be cut off when the hopper grate was open, which was awesome. What happened one time, though, was that the solunoid that ran the shut off device shorted out. While I was washing the hopper, the the water hose got tangled in the operation levers and turned the paddles on even though the grate was up.I did manage to get my arm outta there (and yes, I shouldn't have had it in there) So, I guess the point of the story is: check the solunoid . Probably not a bad I Idea to do it quite often, especially if others are taking the pump out.

 is this this operators current condition or is he in better shape now? how long of a recovery is this guy looking at?

He can walk now, he is doing much better, still has a ways to go.

Wow Todd.....now you know that it can happ'n to anyone now its happend to you, most of us think we are just to good or could see something like that happining so we could stop it....but in reality we are all just one slip away. Just see'n your name near this should just remind us all to be careful...and none of us are "above" an accident. Take care C&M  

You are right CM but it did not happen to me. This was sent to me and I posted it for the guy.

Good to know its not you......hope the guy makes a full recover and now has a new respect of machines.C&M