Years ago I was snaking out a drain with a rented electrical snake. The drain was below ground surface so I was on my hands and knees jamming that snake in while wearing a pair of work gloves because of burrs. My wife had her foot on the cut-off switch pedal. Although the snake was turning slow, it grabbed my glove and started wrapping my arm around it. My wife let up on the cut-off switch but it did not stop. I started working my body into the hole to allow my arm to wrap around more (Lots of torque on these puppies). My wife saved me by thinking fast and unplugging the machine. I did not know my arm/hand would wrap that far around. She had to go get scissors and slit each finger of the glove so I could work my hand out. I was raised on a farm, and am well aware of pinch points and revolving parts. I could not have gone another quarter turn, and was amazed I had no broken bones.
The snake went back to the rental place, I told them of the problem and to please check it because I was just lucky, and did not want someone else to get hurt. I then got out my shovel and just dug up the line.
I used to operate radial drills at Caterpillar. The other shift had set up a job and I started running it. The entire fixture broke loose and started spinning. (1.5-2" thick steel fixture). Only thing that saved me was a piece of plywood that I had set up to control splashing cutting fluid hit me and shoved me out of the way. First shift had the fixture tight, but had it so the fixtured twisted out of the clamps instead of into the clamps. Never made the mistake of trusting someone else's work again.
