An acquaintance of mine was working on his Semi this afternoon, doing something under the hood (not sure what exactly) and the overflow tank for the radiator ruptured while he was leaning over it.
He has second and third degree burns on his face, chest, hands, and arms. He also has burns in his mouth and lungs (I imagine from the steam) and also got antifreeze poisoning.
Hope he recovers well. 
damn... I hope he recovers well too.. that is a whole new level of suck
I sincerely hope this poor fellow recovers quickly, my heart goes out to him.
That is really rough, best wishes
I have a tech buddy in the hospital this week for a similar situation, except he had a battery explode as he was leaning over the corner of a car. He was charging the battery from what I understand.
I'm going to call my buddies and make sure their OK after reading Fluid's and John's posts...
Sorry to hear that. Prayers for a speedy recovery.
Man that is awful. I hope they both recover quickly.
The other day I was pulling plugs out of my fuel lines on the project car. I had plugged them up while they were disconnected to control smell etc. Well when I pulled the plug off somehow gasoline sprayed all over my face and into my eyes. I don't think I've ever run so fast to the garden hose! From now on, I always put a large piece of heavy cardboard over things like that when I go to uncap them. I think I will take similar precautions with batteries (if being charged) and coolant expansion tanks (if hot).
Safety first. Even if it does make you look silly or paranoid.
That's horrible, hope he has a quick recovery.
Crap, I have to change a battery tomorrow. Now you have me freaking out!
That is horrible...just reading it made me shudder. My best wishes to youe friend...
Oh my God.
Well that puts things in perspective. I've been bitching for two weeks about an uncomfortable and embarrassing minor medical issue. All of a sudden, I'm thinking I can deal with this just fine.
Best wishes for your friend's recovery.
that's true Eddie.. makes my busted toes seem like a minor stub against the coffee table in the dark
Maroon92 wrote: Crap, I have to change a battery tomorrow. Now you have me freaking out!
Charging and sparks are not compatable.
iceracer wrote: Charging and sparks are not compatable.
On the contrary. They get along quite well. I found this out when I was 16, and trying to boost my 68 Chevelle. It was dark, and I couldn't tell which terminal was which on the boosting car. I got really close to have a look. The car was running, and charging. The spark from connecting the cables ignited the hydrogen gas from the battery and it exploded a few inches from my face. It blew the top right off the battery. It's amazing that I wasn't badly hurt.
I hope your friend is OK.
I can think of a few people I would wish this on, but there's reasons and they'd deserve it. Hope your friend is ok.
That really sucks. I hope everyone ends up OK. This kind of stuff makes me realize again that this hobby of ours car be very dangerous, be careful everyone.
Holy berkely! Best wishes for recovery. That's a level of suckage I can hardly imagine. How much coolant does one of those things hold, anyway?
In reply to friedgreencorrado:
Somewhere around 10 gallons IIRC.
Yikes. Best of luck to your friend. I had one o' them fancy plastic-capped honda radiators explode a couple seconds before I opened the hood. One of those "Wow, that would've sucked." moments.
Never a good thing, hope he gets well soon.
I worked with someone once who after driving for an hour thought it would be a wise decision to remove his radiator cap. Needless to say he went to the hospital & was left blind for a few weeks.
Steam is generally not your friend.
Hope he recovers, but burns are nasty, nasty things...
steam burns are especially bad. They go deep
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to friedgreencorrado: Somewhere around 10 gallons IIRC.
Whole system, or just the overflow? I guess it doesn't matter to your friend, though. Again best wishes for a good recovery. Thinking about glycol poisoning on top of the steam burns just makes me shudder.
Ouch. Steam is no fun. My wishes for his speedy recovery.
Several years ago, a co worker was standing in front of an early '80's LTD with the 3.8 V6, he was writing a body shop estimate on it and the hood was open. Those were known for weak bypass hoses, in fact Ford recalled a bunch of them. The bypass hose suddenly ruptured, he heard and saw it coming and quickly turned his head but the scalding coolant spray hit him on the side of the neck and the ear. He nearly lost his right ear, he's lucky he didn't lose an eye. He's a dark skinned African American and three years later his ear and the side of his neck were still pink. He said the doc told him it could very likely be that way for the rest of his life.
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