The Puckered Sphincter

[Big Babooba]

Is this possibly the world's first remote controlled electric bung hole? From "News of the Weird":

[FONT=VERDANA, HELVETICA]But What If the Device Falls Into the Wrong Hands?

A 55-year-old British man whose bowel was ruptured in a nearly catastrophic traffic accident has been fitted with a bionic sphincter that opens and closes with a remote controller. Ged Galvin had originally endured 13 surgeries in a 13-week hospital stay and had grown frustrated with using a colostomy bag until surgeon Norman Williams of the Royal London Hospital proposed the imaginative operation. Dr. Williams, who was interviewed along with Galvin for a November feature in London's Daily Mail, wrapped a muscle transplanted from Galvin's leg around the sphincter and attached electrodes to tighten or loosen the muscle's grip. [Daily Mail, 11-10-09, 11-13-09] [/FONT]

 

[soberups]

Is this possibly the world's first remote controlled electric bung hole? From "News of the Weird":

[FONT=VERDANA, HELVETICA]But What If the Device Falls Into the Wrong Hands? [/FONT]

[FONT=VERDANA, HELVETICA]A 55-year-old British man whose bowel was ruptured in a nearly catastrophic traffic accident has been fitted with a bionic sphincter that opens and closes with a remote controller. Ged Galvin had originally endured 13 surgeries in a 13-week hospital stay and had grown frustrated with using a colostomy bag until surgeon Norman Williams of the Royal London Hospital proposed the imaginative operation. Dr. Williams, who was interviewed along with Galvin for a November feature in London's Daily Mail, wrapped a muscle transplanted from Galvin's leg around the sphincter and attached electrodes to tighten or loosen the muscle's grip. [Daily Mail, 11-10-09, 11-13-09] [/FONT]

God help the poor man if the batteries go dead and he craps his pants. I cant wait to see the "energizer bunny" commercial for this one.

I'd be willing to bet that, right now, there is an IE guy sitting in his office trying to figure out a way to combine this technology with Telematics. Imagine a center management team that could control the bowels of all of its on road drivers via remote control. It would eliminate the need for "breaking trace" to find a bathroom; you cant poop until your boss says you can poop. It would probably be good for an extra .3 SPORH.

 

[soberups]

tp60 cause more injuries that you might suspect.


d

The biggest problem with them is the lack of training. I cant count the number of times I've seen a rookie driver being sent out cold on a route...and "oh, by the way, you will be pulling this trailer too".

I have always felt that, upon reaching seniority, all new drivers should be given a one-hour training course in how to hook, unhook, and back up a pup trailer. Its hard enough to do a route cold, but when you add the stress of trying to figure out a trailer with little or no training its downright unsafe. Trailer training should occur under controlled conditions, with the opportunity to drive around on the property or on empty side streets in order to become familiar with the equipment.

We have a gal here who lost half of a finger due to a rather gruesome accident with a TP60. She had lowered the tongue down onto the ball but it wasnt quite centered so the "tip" of the clamp was resting on the ball and bearing the entire toungue weight of the fully loaded trailer. Instead of pushing on the front or side of the trailer itself to drop it down onto the ball...she grabbed the clamp with her hand and pulled on it and it dropped down on the ball with her finger inside.

She was on the customers property but they were gone so no one could hear her screaming for help. And the landing gear on the trailer had already been retracted, so she was unable to turn the crank far enough to raise the trailer back up. She was stuck there and had no choice but to yank her hand out and leave half of her finger inside the clamp.

Proper training would have prevented this.

 

[cachsux]

The biggest problem with them is the lack of training. I cant count the number of times I've seen a rookie driver being sent out cold on a route...and "oh, by the way, you will be pulling this trailer too".

I have always felt that, upon reaching seniority, all new drivers should be given a one-hour training course in how to hook, unhook, and back up a pup trailer. Its hard enough to do a route cold, but when you add the stress of trying to figure out a trailer with little or no training its downright unsafe. Trailer training should occur under controlled conditions, with the opportunity to drive around on the property or on empty side streets in order to become familiar with the equipment.

We have a gal here who lost half of a finger due to a rather gruesome accident with a TP60. She had lowered the tongue down onto the ball but it wasnt quite centered so the "tip" of the clamp was resting on the ball and bearing the entire toungue weight of the fully loaded trailer. Instead of pushing on the front or side of the trailer itself to drop it down onto the ball...she grabbed the clamp with her hand and pulled on it and it dropped down on the ball with her finger inside.

She was on the customers property but they were gone so no one could hear her screaming for help. And the landing gear on the trailer had already been retracted, so she was unable to turn the crank far enough to raise the trailer back up. She was stuck there and had no choice but to yank her hand out and leave half of her finger inside the clamp.

Proper training would have prevented this.

I agree with you Sober but I think it should be on all equipment. My last package car had air brakes which I thought was the greatest thing. It wasn`t until I got to feeder that I found out I needed a certification on my license as well all the other things one needs to know about an air brake vehicle.
While not Package Car this has been one of my beefs about the DTS school. Sure they crank out sups who know,and can teach,the ten point commentary verbatim,they don`t have the real world experience of day to day driving. Every peak I see seasonal drivers come in who are in a world of trouble because they were not trained with experience. One guy this peak didn`t even know how to put the legs down on a drop frame pup.

 

[dannyboy]

sober

did this get brought up at the safety meeting? as a member, you have the right to change the way things are done at your center. and if management does not follow the safety committees recomendation, file. then let them explain to the union why. that also creates a paper trail for osha to see where the company was given suggestions to fix issues in their training, or lack there of, and they refused.

then the next time there is an injury, file on the injury via the safety committee for lack of response to your recomendation.

make the system work for your drivers, not against them.

d

 

[bigbrownhen]

Sober, that story gave me the chills. I have often wondered why there is no training on how to handle the TP-60s. Most of my management team isn't familiar with it either. Unless you have pulled trailers in the past, you have no idea how to safely use the them. It is just a matter of time until there is a major accident with one of those before they finially decide to properly train all of us on how to use them. Even a video would be better than nothing.

 

[soberups]

Sober, that story gave me the chills. I have often wondered why there is no training on how to handle the TP-60s. Most of my management team isn't familiar with it either. Unless you have pulled trailers in the past, you have no idea how to safely use the them. It is just a matter of time until there is a major accident with one of those before they finially decide to properly train all of us on how to use them. Even a video would be better than nothing.

There is a rule in place that only "certified" employees are allowed to tow the trailers; but that "certification" consists of little more than a basic little photocopied booklet that shows how to hook one up. You are supposed to read and review it and then your name is on the "certified" list. There are plenty of drivers who got "certified" 5 minutes before they left the building doing a trailer route cold for the first time.

 

[UPSF Peeon]

set of empty doubles, loaded heavy, going down hill hit a patch of ice that i hadnt seen

maintained control but almost had to change my pants

 

[Highwayman]

Sounds similar to hooking a dolly to the back of a trailer. Look at the handles on a dolly. They were modified to be so big and beefy with the help of the feeder safety committee in Willow Grove PA. This way you have more leverage to move the hunk of metal side to side. Still a lot of people get injured hooking up doubles. If there was a way to modify these trailers it would sure help.