The Accident Report
I am a professional construction worker, very experienced and capable about my work. Here are all the details of the accident that the insurance man asked for, dictated by me in his tape recorder:
During the day in question, I was working on the roof of a six story building, downtown. When I finished my work that day, after everybody else had already gone home, I saw that there were many left over bricks lying around, about 500 lbs worth. I thought it would be good to get them down and use them elsewhere, instead of just leaving them on the roof and losing them which would be such a waste. But, our makeshift elevator was down since 3 that afternoon, and, instead of carrying them a few at a time down the stairs, which would be very tiring and maybe dangerous, I thought of stacking them all in that large crate we also had up there, which in itself would aftrewards need to be brought down as well. There was a functional pulley attached to the edge of the steel perimeter of the roof, and I thought that could be very useful in completing this task. So, I attached the crate to the end of a long rope, through the pulley, and hanged it securely (with the remore controlled lock we often use) over the edge of the roof, over the empty lot six stories (or 75 feet) below. Then, I gradually filled the crate with the 500 or so heavy bricks, and, leaving the lock in place to secure the operation of the pulley, I threw the end of the long rope down in the empty lot adjacent to the construction site, and took the stairs down there myself with the radio controller in my pocket.
As I wrote on the other hospital form you guys gave me, I weigh about 150 lbs, but I'm very strong because of this heavy construction work I've been doing since I dropped out of school, and am not afraid of some loose bricks on the roof. Yet, for some reason, as soon as I grabbed the end of the rope with my hands and released the pulley lock with the radio controller, so that the crate should start coming down to me, I was very surprised to feel such a strong pull from the crate and forgot to let go of the rope! As you all can guess, even if you don't have my long experience and skill in construction work all these years, I took off vertically very fast, parallel to the new building, directly towards the roof again. It was at about the third floor that I hit the crate with the bricks, very, very hard, because for some reason I think it was coming down even faster than I was going up. That's where, I believe, I broke for the first time my skull, collar bone and right shoulder blade. Then, after this terribly painful collision, as I was still somehow holding on to the rope for dear life, I zoomed even higher all the way to the roof and my fingers struck the inside of the pulley and got mangled and stuck there, the exact moment I heard a loud thump that I think was the sound of the bricks hitting the ground.
But, as was experiencing tremendous pain and still holding onto the rope over the abyss below, the crate must have cracked somehow, spilling most of the bricks onto the lot, and now the remaining crate and spare bricks still inside must have be weighing about 100 lbs or so. So, as you can understand, even, as I said before, you do not have my construction experience and skill, my bleeding hands (still holding onto the rope for dear life) got unstuck from the pulley, and I started accelerating downwards, still parallel to the building of course. It was at about the third floor again that the broken crate hit one more time, but from below this time, and that's why I have broken ankles, knees and thighs on both sides.
Of course, this seconfd collision had a beneficial effect on my predicament, because it slowed me down a bit and I didn't hit the ground with quite as much force as you would expect. But I did, and that's where my other shoulder blade, arm and wrist must have gotten broken to pieces... that was even more painful than anything that had happened to me so far. Obviously, I couldn't hold onto the rope any more, although I wanted to, and I'm sorry to inform you that I let go...
The last thing I remember while lying down on the ground in excruciating pain was looking up and seeing the same old broken crate with the leftover bricks inside coming down at me...
Next, I woke up in this bed at the hospital, unable to move even a finger, and saw the Doctor asking me how I felt...
