Following my harrowing inspection of the elevator shaft, there came a time to actually do the work I had calculated and so I found a couple of guys in the crew that would work fast and neat. There wasn’t a lot of room behind the barricades on each floor; just enough room for the material and maybe a few more spare feet. And since they wanted it done quickly, we were going to have to do the work on a weekend and have it complete by Monday morning.
I showed Bill and his apprentice just what I needed done and then I warned him, “Be careful. They can’t set the doors into the frames until we finish the wall; that means that you could reach your arm out into the shaft and touch the elevators as they go by. Don’t!” In fact I warned them both a couple of times. And to demonstrate that particular hazard, an elevator hurtled past just as I was speaking. They both jumped back in alarm. (Elevators are very quiet and they never say, ‘excuse me.’)
I left them to their work and went back to mine. Then, every couple of hours, I would go back to the tower to see how they were doing. They were making great progress. Bill had his apprentice work one floor above, getting things ready while Bill finished the floor below. Good thinking.
Then, I went back one more time and opened the barricade door and found Bill lying on the floor, looking dazed and his tools scattered all over. “Bill! What happened?” He shook his head and then told me, “Well, I needed John (on the floor above) to give me some more screws, so I leaned out into the shaft to yell at him. The next thing I knew I was on the floor over here” Yes, an elevator coming up had struck him and thrown him about 10 feet away. But imagine the results if it had been an elevator coming down.
We finished the project on time…even though Bill worked at a much slower pace.
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