Tragic hunting accident

I feel bad, but that was a Darwin award. Why would you go into something like that for a dog? Now their families are without a father and husband...no dog is worth YOUR life.
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnoti am ignorant of what goes on in the "pit" under an oil well.

anybody care to explain what it was that killed and injured the men?

I was wondering the same thing
 
Originally Posted By: KjBeachyOriginally Posted By: SlickerThanSnoti am ignorant of what goes on in the "pit" under an oil well.

anybody care to explain what it was that killed and injured the men?

I was wondering the same thing

They probable climbed under the pumping unit guard that keeps people from getting in where the pumping unit rotates around while the well is pumping.

Most of the wells are required to have "Starts Automatically" signs on the pumping unit guards.

Many of these pumping units or pump jacks start up and shut off many times in a 24 hour period. So they probable got in where they shouldn't have been and the pumping unit started up automatically.

These guys must not have known anything about oil wells and pumping units or pump jacks.

I don't see this as a hunting accident.
 
[quoteDesertRam]Man, that sucks. I feel for their families. Lockout-tagout.[/quote]

That was my first thought as well, Troy, but that would only work if the pump was not in service.

I was bringing up a chemical still one night after maintenance had signed off the master tag; cleared all red tags/locks and had the (125' tall)column nearly up on water. Head temp was 95*C+ (around 200*F). (Indicating steam would be entering the overhead condensers in the immediate future). This still used 4 very large fin-fan condensers located on the third level (picture a huge auto radiator with fan guard shroud). Switches were on the first level and I was about to turn them on, when fortunately, I decided to go to the 4th level and look down into the shrouds to be sure no insulation or other debris had been left on the coils. That's when I discovered one of the temporary shutdown hands sleeping on the coils of one fan under the prop.
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Hard to anticipate every scenario apt to be encountered around heavy equipment.


Originally Posted By: derbyacresbobOriginally Posted By: KjBeachyOriginally Posted By: SlickerThanSnoti am ignorant of what goes on in the "pit" under an oil well.

anybody care to explain what it was that killed and injured the men?

I was wondering the same thing

They probable climbed under the pumping unit guard that keeps people from getting in where the pumping unit rotates around while the well is pumping.

Most of the wells are required to have "Starts Automatically" signs on the pumping unit guards.

Many of these pumping units or pump jacks start up and shut off many times in a 24 hour period. So they probable got in where they shouldn't have been and the pumping unit started up automatically.

These guys must not have known anything about oil wells and pumping units or pump jacks.

I don't see this as a hunting accident.

I'm sure this pit is just a retaining pit to contain any possible leakage of oil that might occur during operation.

Regards,
hm


 
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Originally Posted By: hm1996 That was my first thought as well, Troy, but that would only work if the pump was not in service.



True. I guess I was thinking that if they'd ever had any kind of training related to energized equipment they wouldn't have been dumb enough to mess around with it, not that the equipment in question should have been tagged. My Turret's kicked in, resulting in a relatively short comment.
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Originally Posted By: derbyacresbobThe pit around the wellhead, we have always called them cellars and I have never seen moving parts in the cellars.

All pump jacks I've seen are all surface mounted w/o any concern for spillage. Storage tanks all have a berm around them of sufficient size to contain all the contents of the tank, so

I was just guessing about being a retainers pit, Bob.

Originally Posted By: DesertRamI was thinking that if they'd ever had any kind of training related to energized equipment they wouldn't have been dumb enough to mess around with it

That's for sure! Sounds as if they were crushed between equipment and pit wall????

Sad!

Regards,
hm
 
Getting caught up in any machinery would be a terrible way to go. There's just no stopping even small and medium sized equipment.

Good points above. There is a sizeable part of the population that doesn't work or play around any type of heavy machinery at all, so ignorance of the workings is expected.
 
I'm going with the news reporter doesn't know much about oil locations or who ever told them the story. If the pic with the news story is the actually well site, then I would go with they got into the pump jack. I cant think of anything else that would be big enough and start automatically that would wipe someone out. Usually by the time the pump jack is set the cellar ring is back filled,not always. I dont see it as a hunting accident, still a bad way to go.

If you scroll through the pics with the story you'll see it was the pump jack.
 
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