Get well soon Ben....

Our thoughts at this time are with Ben, who suffered serious scalding when his top hose blew off on his fronty up the woods yesterday, resulting in 2nd degree burns to his neck arm and back.
Thanks to everyone who assisted in this situation, and repairing/recovering his car.

This sad incident did make me stop and think though, and I think praise has to go out to everyone who has been involved in the woods project from the outset. We are in our sixth year now down the woods, and thanks to the common sence, consideration and concentration from everyone in this potentially hazardous environment, this is our most serious amoungst very few incidents in this time. Jim broke a tooth years back on one of the first workdays, when a section of tree I was felling decided to defy all the laws of physics and chased him, Pete (the accident prone one!) fell/jumped off the back of a car and hurt his leg, and a later meet ended up sitting the back of his car when his brakes failed on a hill and he came down backwards rather promptly into a earth bank.

The nature of this hobby has great potential for getting hurt, the simply nature of the terrain is such that you cant even stand up in some places, and yet we have played so many times with our 2 tonne machines, but due to your sensibleness this has been largely free of incidents.

In fairness, Bens hose popping off could have happened anywhere, as indeed could have Petes brake failure, and as Ben said yesterday he was kinda glad if was going to happen that it did where it did, amoungst a bunch of friends who could help, sooner than being being on his own somewhere.

Get well soon Buddy...and if we can do anything to help, just give us a shout.

Get well soon Ben - sorry to hear about the accident but pleased the FOG team were on hand to help.

Take care fella

Get well soon Ben

get well soon

hope all is well

get well fella, glad the gang were able to assist you.

Ben all bandaged up....

Ben pre-bandages.... :sick:

He was proper lucky it didnt get his face, otherwise reconstructive surgery would have meant a certain improvement, and then he would have lost his girl friend, who only goes for ugly fellas! :wink:

wishing you a speedy recovery mate

Get well soon ben

You take it easy Ben and get well soon fella!!!!!! :thumbup:

wishing you a speedy recovery mate and well done to all the foggers who wen to his aid :clap:

Blimey, get well soon buddy

Bloody hell, that looks proper nasty. Speedy recovery Ben

#&@? that looks like it hurts. Hope you have a fast heal Ben.

Spoke to Ben this evening and he is in good spirits...he went to east grinstead burns unit today sooner than tomorrow, as they had an earlier appointment, where they did their thing, and good news is he only has 2nd degree burns on his neck, and the rest is superficial. :shock:

(if looking like an alien laid eggs under your skin it just superficial!!!)
He has to rest for a while and no driving, but sounded a lot for comfortable today than he did last night.
He said thanks again to everyone who helped and assisted, and everyone else for their support.

What happened was he had fitted his video camera to the grill to video around the woods as he drove, but was concerned he couldnt see it in case it fell off, so he popped the bonnet and was reattaching it to the top bar of the grill with his hand down the top by the bonnet catch to feed the strap through. It was this point that the rad top hose chose to pop off the radiator, emptying the boiling contents of the coolant system all over him. He then ran down to the clearing to get water for his burns.
He is both unlucky and lucky at the same time...unlucky that by pure chance the hose popped off then, when the car was stationary and not bouncing around, but lucky that his injuries were not worse, and it didnt get him in the face and eyes.

A close call, which is gonna see Ben very sore for a while...

...and true testament that them stupid clips that vauxhall fit to their hoses are capable of inflicting far more pain than the usual blood blisters whenever you go near them! :twisted:

Farrrrk! That looks nasty! And some rotten luck! Hope you get better soon bud

Ouch, that looks painfull. Take care mate.