Last night a Sacramento teevee news show had a followup piece and interview with the electrician that impaled himself with an auger bit several weeks ago. Ron Hunt is an electrician from Truckee, CA—north of Lake Tahoe.
Apparently while he was working off a stepladder, lost his balance and the drill and chucked bit hit the ground with the bit pointing upwards (reasonable to assume for the drill motor has a flat back.) Evidently the bit’s screwpoint penetrated his right eye socket, and the eye was damaged beyond saving. After unsuccessfully trying to cut the bit into two pieces, the ER folks instead drove the bit all the way through to extract it. {Cutting was abandoned for it was hard to get a firm grip on the bit while “floating” in his head.}
See:
www.ronhuntmedicalfund.com with a nice 900x608 image of the hospital xray:
www.ronhuntmedicalfund.com/xray-large.html The tools in the teevee report looked very similar to these catalog descriptions and images. The drill motor appeared to be a classic
1/2 inch “Hole-Hawg” . The bit reportedly was a
1 1/8 x 18-inch ship auger .
[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 11-11-2003).]