A Fracture of a Second

A loud shriek and a few expletives shattered the otherwise peaceful Saturday afternoon air in my back garden. The shrieks and swear words brought my girlfriends harmonica lesson to a raucous crescendo. As she came down our stairs, at pace, expecting me to have either set the house on fire or somehow barbecued one of the cats. She was greeted with me, hand in basin, some claret and my finger pointing in a couple of different directions. It wasn’t pleasant.

I’d made it all the way to the grand old age of 36 ? having never broken a bone in my body. Saturday afternoon changed that! I didn't quite know at the time what I'd done, but I knew it was painful. A quick dash to the local A&E, hand wrapped in a tea towel, followed by an x-ray. Revealed I had an open fracture on my middle finger. A clean break and judging by the doctor’s reactions it was a pretty good one. The nurse redressing my finger post x-ray, couldn't hide her surprise at how bad my finger looked. Not really the reaction you’re looking for as the patient. An hour or so after I arrived, I left, bandaged up, with pain relief and an appointment with plastics the following day.

I'm not sure if there is a more embarrassing profession to declare you work in when you arrive at A&E, than the OSH profession. Nevertheless, I fessed up and told the truth about what I did for a living. Doctors and Nurses have a great sense of humour, it certainly helped to put me at ease. God love the NHS!

So, how did I do it? Well most people will expect this to be DIY related, but I know my limits with DIY! Rather pedestrianly, I was cleaning my bike. So now you really want to know, how I did it!

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not one for sitting still. In a pre-emptive move ahead of lockdown I ordered a new gravel bike, to explore the trails in my new neighbourhood, having recently moved to a new house (the weekend before lockdown!). Anyone who is a cyclist, or lives with one, will recognise the equation for the number of bikes a cyclist needs (n+1). If You live with the cyclist, you probably want to change the + to a -.

However, rather than being prepared for the lockdown, my plan was foiled. My bicycle got stuck in a warehouse for five weeks. It arrived on Friday, which came as a surprise, having had no correspondence as to when it would turn up. Like anybody when a new toy arrives, everything else stops. I eagerly set up my new bike stand, put the new ride in and set about attaching the electric pink pedals and making the minor adjustments required. We were all set for our first ride the following morning.

Saturday arrived, I spent the morning pottering around, mapping out potential routes and making the obligatory coffees ahead of setting out. As I came to head out for my ride, I notice my phone battery was very low. Not wanting to go out into an unfamiliar area without a full battery and GPS, I stuck my phone on charge. To kill the hour I'd be waiting, I decided to clean my road bike and my fixed gear track bike. There is a certain joy and pride in cleaning a bike, bringing it back to how it looked when you first got it from the shop. It's an activity that can clean the mind as well as the bike. It’s very therapeutic.

This was the first time I had my bike stand to do the maintenance and cleaning. It made things easier. However, as I got to the end of cleaning my second bike, my track bike. It all went horribly wrong. If you’re not familiar with a track bike, the rear cog is fixed, so you must continuously pedal and you use your legs to slow and stop the rear wheel. 

As I went to wipe the lubricant off the chain, I hadn't stopped the pedals rotating. The cloth caught in the chain and rear cog, pulling the cloth and my finger between the chain and cog. It’s painful to type that and it is probably uncomfortable to read! It was certainly very uncomfortable when it happened. A fraction of a second and chaos!

I've been replaying what happened over and over, because there's just a lot of relevance to my day job. When we investigate accidents, we consider a multitude of things that may have impacted what occurred; the experience of an operator, how familiar they were with the equipment, any changes in environment, any distractions, unusual behaviours, etc.

When I apply the investigation logic to this situation, I can see that I was very familiar with the bike, the activity and the tools, but there were some subtle differences. Normally I couldn’t use a bike stand, meaning the rear wheel and cog couldn't rotate, unless I was lifting the bike and turning the pedals, keeping my digits well away from any of the moving parts.

The reason I wanted to share this with you, is because I had looked to improve a process and make life a little easier. In doing so, a hazard I normally controlled, was no longer in control. Please take my lesson on board and in the workplace consider what risks are you introducing as you look to make improvements. The risk is real, and I’ll have the scars to prove it!

So, my lockdown activities have changed, I’m no longer able to ride a bike, longboarding is unadvisable and my plans to learn the guitar have taken a back seat. The change in pace is having some added benefits. I’m getting to grips with the dictation function on my laptop, have time to attend to CPD, read the pile of books I’ve ordered and focus on the task of returning the Team to work safely, when the F1 world gets back to business in June.

I’m so grateful to the NHS, it’s such an incredible service that we all take for granted until we really need it. I spent a lot of time apologising to them for having to look after me, but they just respond with it’s what we do. Their ability to react to whatever is in front of them is incredible to witness and I’m sure we could all learn a lot from them. I’m happy to report I’m on the mend, my fingers in this racy number below and I’ll have my stitches out in a few weeks’ time.