Hi Lifts - dangerous even for the experienced.

[Matt Peckham]

A Hi Lift under a vehicle is like a loaded gun... here's a story that may make us a little more careful when using our Hi Lifts.

"I have some bad news to report from the Halloween Extreme event at Hope
Center. John Cranfield from Nova Scotia lost an eye while high-lift jacking
Jesse Ware's Defender 110.

Jesse had been trying to get up a very difficult rock section requiring a
ton of momentum and he blew his left front tire (a huge 37" TSL swamper) off
the rim. We winched him to a tree to stabilize the car as it was on a 40
degree (fore to aft) angle. John Cranfield broke out the high lift jack to
raise the front of the vehicle up, but it wouldn't go up enough to work on
the tire, so he began to let the jack down to try an alternative jacking
position. When he clicked the jack to lower the vehicle, it hesitated for a
few seconds and John took is hand off the handle. A second later the handle
came flying up and hit him in his left temple with enormous force.

The next thing we knew, John was laying unconscious over Jesse's winchline
with blood pouring from his left eye. I ran and scooped up Jesse's
6-year-old son and Peter, Jr. and ran up the hill so they wouldn't be
traumatized by the horrible sight.

Luckily, Ed Bear is a retired doctor and his wife, Shelly, is a retired
nurse, so they were able to take charge. We broke out some compression pads
from the BSROA first aid kit and some bandages from other first aid kits and
Ed was able to seal the wound. After about 30 seconds, John came to, but he
was very groggy.

After calling 911 on the cell phones and with the ambulances on the way, we
needed to get John off the mountain, down to the entrance road. We made the
decision to have me clear out the back of my RR to create enough room for
John to lie down and back myself up a bypass to get as close to John as
possible. We very carefully lifted John into the back of the RR and Mike
Pettengil and his sons offered to watch Peter, Jr. while I carefully picked
my way out of the woods with Ed Bear in the passenger seat navigating and
Shelly in the back with John. John appeared to be stable on the way out and
the ambulance was waiting out on the entrance road when we arrived.

On Sunday morning, Chris Komar and Ed both gave us reports that they had
spoken with John that morning and that he was recovering from a lengthy
operation to restore his eye and the surrounding eye socket. The doctors
unfortunately could not save the eye, but we were actually somewhat relieved
that John had survived the accident.

I leave it up to you guys, as the club officers, to decide whether you want
to publish this to the club on Yahoo groups. My personal feeling is that we
as a rover club can learn a valuable lesson from this very serious accident
and it would be better for the club to have first-hand information rather
than rumour to go on. Also, I think we should have a high lift usage clinic
at the next available opportunity. Lastly, John's going to need all the
support he can get from the rover community in his recovery. It was not
clear to Ed or Chris whether John had taken out health insurance to cover
the trip or whether his Canadian health providers would cover the medical
expenses. Ed suggested some sort of benefit fund, but that it was premature
at this time. I'll keep you posted if I hear from him."

Concerned BSROA member"

[Matt Peckham]

so what, are you guys afraid to respond to this thread? think you are all immortal?

[rrdstarr]

I have had a Hi-lift when I had my first four wheel drive at 16, a '67 LWB Land Rover. That was 22 years ago...and I have never had it bite me back.

[Schludwiller]

Why don't you worry about getting an avatar under your name instead of checking out all your dead threads.

[warmonger]

I can tell you the same kind of stories with any jack. They are all dangerous, no matter what you are using. The smartest thing to do is to use common sense when jacking a vehicle. There are some accidents that are unpreventable, but the risks can be reduced with a little thinking before hand. I am not sure I would be jacking up a vehicle on a 40 degree incline. To me that is like winching or snatching from a hitch ball. It just ain't wise! I am sure someone will take me to task for this stance, but that is fine. You still won't change my mind. I prefer to err on the side of caution.

[Kerensky97]

I agree, alot of this problem sounded like they got distracted by trying to hurry a vehicle off an obstacle.
Another thing mentioned in the story is how they say they stabilized the vehicle with a winch hooked to a tree.
The last thing I want to do is try to use a Hi-Lift on a truck at 40 degrees with a taut winch line connected.

When you're stuck the best thing to do is to stop, wait, and just look at the problem for a few minutes. If it takes you an hour to get the vehicle off and twenty people are waiting its a small price to pay for safety.

Obvoiusly the situation may have been different for them and this seemed like the prudent thing to do, but its always better to risk more vehicle damage than to put yourself at personal risk.

[sirloy]

I know it been 10 years since the first posting of this but it never does any harm to put in a word of caution.
I am the John that this happened to and I can say that except for Matt's post the supposed scenarios posted are not accurate. The truck was not stuck but had a flat in a most difficult situation. I was unaware but the jack which was in position when I stepped up to help was dry of lubrication. This resulted in one of the pins failing to dog into the mast so it dropped the load. When the pin did dog into a lower hole the handle was thrown up so violently that it was torn from my grip and smashed into my face.
I was blessed with amazing first aid and the care of a wide group of friends from the US and Canada. Now 10 years later I suffer few ill effects except for the loss of the eye and problems the with titanium eye socket restoration getting very very cold in the winter like the ultimate ice-cream headache

John