Stay safe kids...

Rew

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7654926.stm

A police weapons specialist who shot himself in the hand is suing the PSNI.

Peter Woods, 50, was dismantling a gun at a police facility in February last year when the accident happened.

It is understood that he removed the magazine from a pistol, but a bullet in the chamber fired into his hand. He recovered from his injury.

Lawyers for Mr Woods claimed in the High Court that proper safety procedures were not in place, and ammunition may have been faulty.

Mr Woods, a civilian weapons maintenance specialist, was injured at the Seapark base in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in February 2007.

His legal team is arguing that a proper risk assessment was not carried out and a second person should have been present to reduce the accident risk.

The case was adjourned until next week, when police witnesses are expected to appear before the court.

Daithi McGee

Jesus, can't people just take the blame for their own actions these days without looking to sue someone? If someone else was handling the gun and shot him in the hand I would see the case but the world is just going crazy these days.

Vegeta

Ouch!

All he same though what was he doing (in his professional capacity) to a loaded pistol for this to happen?

Mellor

His fault tbh,
dismantling a loaded gun is not "specialist" behaviour, in fact its rather more like plain old special

cavan shooter

I must say, my initial reponses on reading the post where the following:

who the %&$£ let him near a firearm,
however I then put my H+S head on and considered the case against the police, which as ever will hinge on competence and therefore ultimately training, knowledge and experience with this particular firearm and the activity in which the chap was engaged.

The issue of risk assessment all being a formality (and legal requirement) will have to be proved, -that one existed and that it was brought to the attention of the inured party.

Still It shall make interesting reading when it comes to light. My bet he'll be held partially liable or he will win the whole case? as the police could easily open a can of worms in relation to the topic i.e he was competent or not, if he wasn't competent why the hell did you let him near a firearm in the first place???? are you saying you let anyone access to the Firearms???

Grizzly 45

Going from the report."He removed mag from pistol,but a round in the chamber fired into his hand".

Coops rule nr one TREAT EVERY FIREARM AS LOADED.Was obviously not in force here.Dont see how the ammo could be faulty..It went off didnt it??:rolleyes::)

Rew

I just don't understand why his hand would be infront of the muzzle while he was pulling the trigger.

Traumadoc

If he shot himself in the hand he has probably lost the use of the hand ( especially if there is nerve damage).

The real question should be why was there a bullet in the chamber?

Rew

There is a link somewhere on here to another boards where a guy explained in detail with pictures how he shot himself through the hand, I can't remember how much nerve damage he did but I was amazed how little physical damage there was.

rrpc

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Going from the report."He removed mag from pistol,but a round in the chamber fired into his hand".

Coops rule nr one TREAT EVERY FIREARM AS LOADED.Was obviously not in force here.Dont see how the ammo could be faulty..It went off didnt it??:rolleyes::)

Definitely should have checked the chamber, but as cavan shooter said, this is also a H&S issue and if the rules for service weapons (I can use the W word here ) were that a round should never be chambered unless the gun is to be used, then I can see where he's coming from. It also depends on the procedures to be adopted by others before he handles the firearm.

Having said that, there's a fair degree of contributory negligence on his part for not checking the gun properly.

Tackleberry.

i'd think who ever trained this ape is saying to himself how many time do you tell someone." loaded or not you do not point a gun at someone", even your own hand.......reckon if there is cash figure for compo here, it will be small