Bungie cord excitement

I was fishing a river in Nor Cal with my two buddies. It was late and we pulled the 12' aluminum boat out and loaded it on top of my friends campershell.  We were bungee cording it down.  I put a long bungee on the backside of the rack and had just stretched it to it's maximum capacity, when my friend decided he didn't like where it was set. He pulled it loose and it slipped out of his hand, of course it came like a slingshot and hit me square in the left eye. I felt my eye compress and I saw stars, my knees buckled and I hit the ground. I think it was the grace of God that this particular bungee had a plastic end on it and it hit me with the flat side. I was blind in that eye for about 14 Hours. Fortunately I sustained no permanent injury to my eye. Now I only use nylon tiedowns. And if I am with someone else using bungees I stand far away.

my eyes are tearing just reading your experience.  that must have been painful and scarey...

You were really fortunate to keep your eye!  When I worked as an ER Doc I evaluated a boy whose eye was lost when his sister stretched a bungee on bedpost and let go.  The hook penetrated the boys eye.

I have a friend who I mountain bike with frequently. He absolutely refuses to use bungies based on extensive personal experience.... He's an eye surgeon. After hearing a few horrific stories from him and I stopped using them too. Still use plenty of shock-cord though.

the multimillionaire jack o'neill of wetsuit fame has one eye.

why?

because he made a surf leash from bungie cord.

all surf leashes are made with urethane rope now.

J

I had no idea that that is how O'neal lost his eye....Interesting.

I have a very healthy respect for bungie cords after a number of my own painful experiences.

MolBasser

Kevin was right on saying his eyes were watering. I was squinting as if avoiding something going into my eye.  A buddy of mines brother and his wife were doing something similar with there boat cover and wham, she lost vision in her eye fro a while and damaged her cornia.  I think about that all the time when using bungies.

jason

This isn't fishing realted but I had a similar accident. I was about 13 and me, my brother and some friends were super happy to get a ride to go surf and were lashing the boards down to the car with bungees. I strapped the cord on the rack and passed the other end to my brother across the roof of the car. He pulled it taught and it slipped from his hand. I didn't even see the bastard coming but it put me to the ground in a second when it ricocheted off my forehead! Had a pretty sweet Hindi bruise right in the middle of my forehead for weeks.

Having been a medic , I can tell you I have seen stuff like that before.  Also a word to the wise when using tie downs.  Make sure the ends are up and SECURED.  I accidentally backed up over one of mine once and I heard this load BANG, I got out and it was one of the riveted tie downs had popped lose from the strain of the tie down strap being run over.  No serious damage but scared the crap out of me.

This post made me sick to my stomach!  Oooooowwww....

larrymcminn, I'm so glad to hear you didn't have any permanent damage.
Eye injuries freak me out. One time I scratched a cornea just from the wind blowing something in my eye. I went to the ER and when the doc put drops in my eye, I passed out for a split second -- kind of a mini seizure -- and when I came to, 3 or 4 docs & nurses were looking down at me. My doc had pushed the red button because it looked like I was going into gran mal! I was fine but it was bizarre because I had no history of anything like that (& never since).

Bungie cord pkgs now have serious warning labels on them. I used to think it was silly but I've learned it's no joke. Probably should stay away from the cheapie ones, too.

km, I also ran over a strap - an extra length on my front tie down that I forgot to tie up out of the way. Fortunately, didn't do any damage before I stopped.

Be careful out there! 

My Dad told me that bungees were illegal at some point in Australia because of eye-damaging accidents...   

And on loose strap ends, I had my own near-disaster about a year ago.  I'm still working up the nerve to report on it here.   

I had a very similar bungee cord accident when I was about 12 years old, till this day I refuse to use bungee cords on ANYTHING. They scare the crap out of me. Was camping with my dad and riding in the back of his Jeep and he had som lawn chairs bungeed down and one end came off and hit me straight in the eye. Still gives me shivers!

Jeff

My sensei is a big-time breeder of Rottweilers who hits the dog show circuit on a regular basis (one of his males won best of breed at Westminster a few years ago - that big time).  Anyway, the back of his SUV is usually full of dog crates when he's headed to a show, so he straps cargo bags to the roof.  A couple of years back he was strapping a big bag down - with a bungee - when the hook slipped from the far side.  It hit his eyebrow and left him with several stitches.  Half-an-inch lower and he would have made a good pirate.  I told him (respectfully, of course) that he was a dumbass for using bungee cords on his roof, and offered to buy him some tie-down straps.    I did a lot of pushups for that, but I think he's sworn off bungees for good.

Glad to hear that your injury wasn't worse!

larrymcminn,
     Thanks... Good warning post... hurts just thinking about it... being an old boy scout I prefer good rope. I'll be careful with the bungies I have and toss the worn ones.

Gue

My GF kayaks and believes rope is the answer to everything.  I am not Mr. Knot tie  by any stretch.  I love ratchet straps, I use them for motorcycles, kayaks, moving stuff, towed cars with them, and even nuclear weapons (yes you read that right, I was missile crewman for 10 years, and we used the hell out of tie down straps).  It is rare they fail.  But I have seen some ratchet retarded folks out there.