[Blown353]

Had a sobering reminder of this scenario a few years ago. One of the machinists at work didn't show up one morning; we figured he was sick, but he was fine the previous day and didn't call in sick that morning-- and he's *not* a no call / no show kind of guy.

A couple of hours go by and someone finally got a hold of his wife to see if everything was OK; she said "When I was leaving for work this morning he said he was going to check out a funny noise under his car and then head to work..."

They found him under his 1995 Corvette, the jack gave out and he didn't put jackstands under the car-- probably one of those "I'll only be under it a minute, I don't need jackstands" decisions that you shouldn't ever do but get away with 99 times out of 100. Autopsy doctor said he was likely conscious and struggled for several hours before finally suffocating as there was no immediate life ending trauma or head/neck injury; however there was enough weight on him to fracture a couple of ribs, compress his chest, and limit his breathing. Garage door was closed and he probably couldn't get enough air in and out of his lungs to yell for help.

His cell phone, wallet, and car keys were on the toolbox, so there wasn't even the possibility of getting the phone out of his pocket to call for help.

Always a good idea to check in with someone from time to time, but unless there is another person around all the time it won't save you from all possible scenarios. If you're going to do something risky, as mentioned earlier either have someone show up to help/watch or call them before and after and let them know if they don't hear from you in a certain amount of time to come by and check in.

There's also a few phone apps out there where if you don't acknowledge the apps "check in" message at intervals of your choosing it will automatically contact people that you designate to let them know you might be in trouble and also send your current GPS location.