8kg at 72kph Workplace Incident.

[rapidxr6]

Kind regards to any of my so called work mates who are reading this. :
For those that don't know i work in a large softwood sawmill.
We had a 'near miss' incident today regarding an air born piece of green timber that was 3ft long, 6 inches thick on the thick end tapering down to about 4 inches and 8 inches wide which was weighed to be 8 kg. The log that it came off was NOT known to have a broken end. When the log was ran into the CME head (high speed set of chipper blades) spins at around 9500rpm the head stands 5 foot and currently has 4 blades to sqaure the face of log (normal operation sequence to long to describe) a piece of the broken end of the log(dimensions above) flung out and was thrown in excess of 40 metres, narrowly missing the roof and rafters, went over the top of a normal walkway not quite 2 metres above(head height). Just missing the observation room where visitors and bosses stand to watch the mill work. The bit of wood then smashed into a safety fence of another machine which is situated on the other side of the shed from where the piece of timber originally came from.
The poor bloke who witnessed it happen was not the operator of the machine but one of the QC's that was on his way to the office walking up the said walkway when the bit of wood came flying from the direction of the CME. He dodged and weaved watching it come towards him nearly falling over his own feet. He was very clearly shaken by the ordeal and was thankful he was not a few metres ahead of himself or he would have copped the bit of flying timber in the head. No doubt that would have killed him!! No jokes it was a lethal flying object.
After talking to him about it i asked how long he thought it took to get from point A to point B. he said not quite 2 seconds. And we figured it was around 40metres it was thrown. I wanted to work out the speed it was travelling at.
...40 metres travel in 2 seconds.
So ..1 second = 20 metres.
20metres X 60seconds=1200 metres per minute
1200metres X 60minutes=72000metres per hour
72000metres divided by 1000 metres =72KPH
So we figured it was travelling at AVERAGE 72 kph correct me if i'm wrong.
Don't forget it weighed 8kg was 3 foot long 8 inches wide and tapered from 4-6 inches thick. it didn't"spear" threw the air, it was toppling end for end, spinning.
In all he is a very lucky man that he saw it coming and his own words were "THANK GOD I SLIPPED DOWN MY ICED OVER BACK STEPS YESTERDAY MORNING AND CORKED MY RIGHT THIGH, THIS IS THE ONLY REASON I WAS WALKING SLOWER THAN NORMAL, IF NOT....I COULD'VE BEEN A DEAD MAN."

I have a photo of him holding the piece of wood on my phone camera....BUT f said...if my bosses read this i WILL be sacked. :monkes: