MINDLESS MUSINGS

I was just lurking about on the dock this one afternoon at work. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Daniel drive into the back of a trailer on his forklift. Next I heard the crunching sound of the dock leveller dropping down because the truck had pulled away from the dock. At first I did not notice anything wrong with this situation.

As I focussed on the scene, I could see Daniel reversing back out of the trailer with a pallet on his tines. The truck was moving forward. This all took place in a very short space of time, but it was as if time had slowed down. It almost seemed like an optical illusion. The forklift was reversing back towards the rear door of the trailer and the trailer was moving forward away from the dock. The gap was getting wider and wider.

It is a large drop out of the back of one of these trailers.

Then it hits me: THE TRUCK IS PULLING AWAY FROM THE DOCK AND DANIEL IS REVERSING OUT OF THE TRAILER!!!

HOLY SHIT!

I opened my mouth to shout out a warning, but all that came out was a jumbled mess. Something like “AAAHWOOOSHIIISTOOODAANNN!!!”

Luckily for all involved it was enough to get Daniel’s attention and he hit the brakes on his forklift. The rear wheels actually dropped out of the rear of the trailer; but the bulk of the forklift remained in the truck. Daniel was sitting there in shock. The prime mover stopped and the driver jumped out. He looked back to see the forklift teetering out of the back of the trailer and placed his hands either side of his head in horror.

Fuck that was close!

Incident reports had to be filled out, and I got plenty of laughs as I tried to describe the warning I yelled out. I was hoping for “Daniel stop!” or something similarly coherent; but my mind was reeling from the panic. Regardless, I am glad I made enough noise to get Daniel’s attention and avert a very serious accident causing massive trauma or possible death.