Guy almost kills himself with a tire

Forgot that site existed. Thank you!
 
I've got a crazy related story.
Bobby Jones worked for my dad in the mid-90's. One day a customer came in, needing a used tire for his truck. Jonesy grabbed a 16" LT tire off of our used rack and set it up on the Coats 20-20 machine. He got the tire onto the rim, hooked up the clip-on airline and positioned the tire so that both sides would bite on the rim and the tire would inflate. As the tire inflated he noticed that the bead wasn't seating on the rim. He sprayed some rubber lubricant onto the tire to help it seat on the rim. He left the air hose clipped on, hoping extra pressure would help the tire seat on the rim. At some point, the air compressor equalized pressure in the tire (160 psi into the tire) and would not inflate any further. Not sure if any of you are familiar with older tire machines, but the bead blew past the rim on the bottom side and severed the 2" shaft and coupler on the machine. At the time, Jonesy was leaning over the tire, trying to get the bead to seat. The curved edge of the rim hit him just above the eyebrow line and lifted him 4 feet off the ground (Bobby Jones was 6' 3" and about 250lbs.) The impact put about an 8", moon-shaped gash into his forehead, knocked him TF out and stretched him flat and the tire, rim, shaft and coupler hammered the 20' ceiling after blowing through Jonesy's head. Fortunately, there was a LAFD station across the street and the medics were there in about two minutes. They saved his life, he was in a coma for a couple of days and his right eye was pinned toward his nose for about a year.
I wasn't there at the time and the next day my dad was explaining and showing me what happened when I noticed that Bobby Jones was trying to seat a 16" tire onto a 16.5" rim.
 
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BobbyFord said:
I've got a crazy related story.
Bobby Jones worked for my dad in the mid-90's. One day a customer came in, needing a used tire for his truck. Jonesy grabbed a 16" LT tire off of our used rack and set it up on the Coats 20-20 machine. He got the tire onto the rim, hooked up the clip-on airline and positioned the tire so that both sides would bite on the rim and the tire would inflate. As the tire inflated he noticed that the bead wasn't seating on the rim. He sprayed some rubber lubricant onto the tire to help it seat on the rim. He left the air hose clipped on, hoping extra pressure would help the tire seat on the rim. At some point, the air compressor equalized pressure in the tire (160 psi into the tire) and would not inflate any further. Not sure if any of you are familiar with older tire machines, but the bead blew past the rim on the bottom side and severed the 2" shaft and coupler on the machine. At the time, Jonesy was leaning over the tire, trying to get the bead to seat. The curved edge of the rim hit him just above the eyebrow line and lifted him 4 feet off the ground (Bobby Jones was 6' 3" and about 250lbs.) The impact put about an 8", moon-shaped gash into his forehead, knocked him TF out and stretched him flat and the tire, rim, shaft and coupler hammered the 20' ceiling after blowing through Jonesy's head. Fortunately, there was a LAFD station across the street and the medics were there in about two minutes. They saved his life, he was in a coma for a couple of days and his right eye was pinned toward his nose for about a year.
I wasn't there at the time and the next day my dad was explaining and showing me what happened when I noticed that Bobby Jones was trying to seat a 16" tire onto a 16'5" rim.
Click to expand...

Wait, the guy survived and soon after you saw him trying to install that tire on that rim? Sounds like the blast knocked some screws loose.
 
DUN24 said:
Wait, the guy survived and soon after you saw him trying to install that tire on that rim? Sounds like the blast knocked some screws loose.
Click to expand...
He left that day in a medic bus. I saw him that night, in a coma, in ICU. When the assembly blew off the machine, it went through his arm first (and broke it in two places) and then hammered his forehead. SERIOUS concussion, but no dain bramage. Pinned his eye for a year, he was cross-eyed, but after a year, the eye came back center. Damn near killed him. Had the paramedics not been across the street, he probably would have died.
 
Working in and managing tire shops for years, we were always getting the cursory warnings about 16.5" rims in various training manuals and sessions. You pretty much never saw them any more, but just in case you did, you had to be aware of the danger of something like that happening. That is some seriously dangerous stuff there. I'd rather a technician think I'm lame for sharing information that they think is outdated or too obvious of a mistake for them to ever make than to have one of them seriously injured or killed because of not knowing the risks.
 
Well, today I was in the area, so I stopped by my dad's old shop. The garage is closed now and they just sell gas and mini-mart items. The girl that was working there let me go in and take photos.
Here is a photo of the ceiling where the tire assembly impacted. I estimate this ceiling to be 16'-20' high. The rim was a standard rim for a 3/4 ton truck, with a tire mounted to it. I'm guessing it weighed 50 lbs. (?) If you look closely, next to the I-beam, you can see the imprint of round hold-down cone. I don't think the assembly slowed down when it blasted through Jonesy's arm and forehead.
 
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