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Post by jtul07 on Mar 1, 2012 20:06:12 GMT -5
This thread is dedicated to true stories of Survival and may include Tull related stories.Roger Williams (mystery to me) Jethro Tull Board Member[glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow]Part 1Roger Williams fell 70 feet, and survivedNearly thirty years ago while constructing the Pekin Bridge over the Illinois River, Roger Williams fell 70 feet from his work ladder head first into the pilings and the water. Williams did not break any bones, but the aftermath left him in pain and off work for five years. By SCOTT HILYARD (shilyard@pjstar.com) Peoria Journal StarPosted Nov 12, 2011 @ 11:43 PM On Nov. 17, 1981, ironworker Roger Williams dropped from the Pekin bridge into the Illinois river. And he survived............................. Photos by Fred Zwicky - Peoria Journal Star PhotographerTwo strangers stood in a short line behind the locked doors of the Social Security office and waited for morning business hours to commence. It was Feb. 11, 2011, and it was cold outside. Small talk that began with the weather led to the discovery the two men shared a connection to a third person who was not present - an ironworker seriously injured in a recent industrial accident. "And you know that guy's brother was the ironworker who fell off the Pekin bridge (30 years ago)," one of the men said. "No," replied the other man, Roger Williams, 58, of East Peoria. "I'm the ironworker who fell off the Pekin bridge, SIR!" Actually, it's the John T. McNaughton Bridge, but people generally think of it as the "Pekin bridge" because it carries Illinois Route 9 across the river from rural Peoria County into downtown Pekin. Williams was a 28-year-old ironworker, a member of Local 112 and part of a local crew hired by American Bridge Co., a division of U.S. Steel, to build the bridge. It would replace the existing highway bridge that was just downstream and that had a lift span to allow barge traffic to pass beneath it. The new bridge would have space between its concrete piers to let barges pass through without disrupting vehicle traffic above. There are pockets of people in central Illinois who remember today something about an ironworker falling off the Pekin bridge during its construction. Stories are told; half-truths, quarter-truths, lies and embellishments are passed along through a filter of time that tends to separate fiction from the facts. Williams' memory is that little of his story trickled out in the days that followed his fall. He doesn't believe his name appeared in any news story or that the accident made the local television news. This Thursday, Nov. 17, will be the 30th anniversary of the day that Williams fell from the top of a concrete pier 70 feet into the Illinois River. The fall didn't kill him, obviously, although it changed his life forever. 'I was a dead man' "This ladder's a widow maker," Williams said to fellow connector Don Schimmelpfennig, on Friday, Nov. 13, 1981, when the two were working on the south end of the concrete pier closest to the Pekin side of the river. End of Part 1
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 1, 2012 20:15:22 GMT -5
Stay tuned for Part 2 of: [glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow] Friday March 2nd on The Jethro Tull Board
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 2, 2012 8:12:37 GMT -5
Roger Williams (mystery to me) Jethro Tull Board Member[glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow]Part 2......................... Photos by Fred Zwicky - Peoria Journal Star PhotographerRoger Williams says : that simple brackets like these would have prevented his fall if his ladder had been secured in a better way. By SCOTT HILYARD (shilyard@pjstar.com) Peoria Journal StarThe large iron hooks that secured the ladder to the top of the pier didn't seem right to Williams. He and Schimmelpfennig went about their business that day prepping the top of the pier, 70 feet in the air, to set a 140-ton box girder in its place the next week. The following Tuesday, Williams and Schimmelpfennig took the short boat trip from the eastern shore of the river to the barge that was anchored at the foot of the pier on which they were working. A crane was on the barge. Williams volunteered to climb the ladder to the top of the pier, make sure it was secure and then signal for Schimmelpfennig to follow. "As I started to climb the ladder to get to the top of the pier, it shifted to the left a good foot," Williams said. "I could hear the hook bar scraping the top of the pier." At the top, the ladder cut loose on Williams. He rode it down the side of the pier for about 5 feet, and when the ladder stopped moving, Williams didn't. He flew out and then down toward a landing that included just two options: the river or the deck of the barge. "I did a perfect backward swan dive and I knew I was a dead man," Williams said. Falling head first, he hit a section of the ladder and started flipping backward through the air. His consciousness gave him a split-screen look at the fall in real-time: one side on fast forward, the other in super slow motion, yet somehow in perfect synch, he explained. "All I could see were my pant legs. I told myself I didn't want to linger. If I hit the barge, all they'd need was a plastic bag and a shovel to scoop me up," Williams said. He cleared the barge by inches and hit the water with his upper back and shoulders. When he finally stopped moving he realized he was at the bottom of the river in a spot that was about 8 to 10 feet deep. The life vest he wore was not doing its job - he was not popping to the surface of the water like he should - when he realized he was stuck in river mud about thigh deep. "My lungs were starting to burn and I needed to breathe," he said. "I just started moving my legs up and down until I finally got my left leg free. I think I instinctively tried to take a breath and thought to myself, "This is how you drown".End of Part 2
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 2, 2012 13:15:41 GMT -5
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of:[glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow] Saturday March 3rd on The Jethro Tull Board
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Post by TM on Mar 2, 2012 16:05:35 GMT -5
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Post by Nonfatman on Mar 2, 2012 16:14:36 GMT -5
Amazing story, and everyone knows how much I like installment stories! I'm looking forward to the conclusion, which I have a feeling will be the 'Tull Survival' part.
Thank God Roger survived this petrifying ordeal, and lived to tell the tale....as Mystery to Me on The Jethro Tull Board!
Rog, if I haven't welcomed you before, please accept my apology.....it's great to have you here!
Jeff
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 3, 2012 5:59:26 GMT -5
Roger Williams (mystery to me) Jethro Tull Board Member[glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow]Part 3................................. Photos by Fred Zwicky - Peoria Journal Star PhotographerBy SCOTT HILYARD (shilyard@pjstar.com) Peoria Journal StarHe slipped free of the mud and the life vest launched him above the surface of the river where the oxygen was. A small group of men watched the fall from the deck of the barge, including Schimmelpfennig. One man was struck by a portion of the falling ladder. Another, the crew foreman, was struck on the foot by a falling piece of steel, which crushed it. The foreman had been running across the deck of the barge with the plan of colliding with the falling Williams to knock him into the river if it looked like he was going to clip the boat. "Seemed like everyone got wiped out but me," Schimmelpfennig said. "Roger just missed the barge and went into the river. It seemed to take a long time for him to surface, but he came popping up and then got pulled out and seemed fine."Williams came to the surface next to the barge with the broken ladder hanging above him. "The ladder was right there. I reached for it and for the first time in my life I was trying to do something physical, couldn't do it and it scared the hell out of me," Williams said. "Mike Baxter (on the barge) grabbed me by the collar and said 'Roger, I got you. Let go of the ladder.' In one motion he jerked me out of the water and stood me on the deck of the barge."Soaked and shaken, Williams was somehow able to walk, talk and move. The more seriously hurt person seemed to be the man with the crushed foot. The supervisor, the man with the seriously injured foot and Williams were loaded into a skip box at the end of the crane. "And they boomed us over to the Pekin side, where we got into an American Bridge Co. truck and I gave directions how to get to Pekin Hospital," Williams said. The victim with the broken foot was prepped for surgery. Lacking MRI technology at the time, Williams was thoroughly X-rayed. There were no broken bones. "Somehow I fell 70 feet to the bottom of the river, hit my head on the way down, missed slamming onto the deck of the barge and didn't break a bone in my body," Williams said. "But I hurt like hell."Although it would take some time to learn, Williams was unbroken by the fall, but he was not unhurt. He was back at work on the bridge two weeks after the fall but couldn't physically do the job. He stayed out of work for more than five years. "I could sneeze and my neck would go out," he said. He continues to cope with chronic neck and back pain. He walks with a slow, stiff, reciprocating gait. He had his right hip replaced in 2001 in a procedure likely to be repeated in the future on his left one. His doctors have told him the fall basically added 15 years to his chronological age. "My medical folder's as thick as 'War and Peace,' and I'm a walking barometer for the weather because I feel it all in my bones," Williams said. "But I'm happy to be alive and walking."Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or shilyard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @scotthilyard End of Part 3Stay tuned for Part 4 - Sunday March 4th
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 4, 2012 6:50:58 GMT -5
Part 4[glow=red,6,300]The Plunge[/glow]EpilogueAs Paul Harvey says 'now for the rest of the story'. This is how the story relates to Jethro Tull. Roger said: "That day the t-shirt I put on under all my work clothes ironically was 'Too Old To Rock & Roll, Too Young To Die'. Incredibly ironic was that it was Martin Barre's 35th Birthday." November 17, 1981As Roger was struggling to free himself from the mud and find air for his lungs, he was thinking this: 'If I don't get out of here right now, I will never get High and Rock with Tull again!' That is what gave him the instinct to survive.Roger Williams joined the Board as 'mystery to me'. I began getting to know him recently when we started a few emails. I have never heard such an incredible story of survival before. Whether this is Fate, Luck, or the Lord doing his 'mysterious ways', this story is an inspiration to me.Roger Williams - Jethro Tull Board Member The Lord does move in Mysterious Ways. God Be Praised!
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Post by TM on Mar 4, 2012 15:51:28 GMT -5
What an amazing story! Roger, welcome to the board! What an incredible ordeal you had to deal with. But, thankfully you'll be able to listen to a lot more Jethro Tull! Jim, thanks for telling the story. Great job!
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Post by Koba the Cat on Mar 5, 2012 14:36:28 GMT -5
Yikes, no ladders for me! Jtull07 asked me to take my post from Deep Vein Thrombosis and move it over here. This is actually an email I sent to Ian last month: I can honestly say Ian Anderson has saved my life. I am still in the hospital as I type this, but I just sent the following email to Ian and hope he reads it: Ian, I have been a hardcore fan since the '80's and seen dozens of shows. I am 42, and currently hospitalized for a near death experience with DVT/Pulmonary embolisms. I recently flew roundtrip to Germany from the U.S. for work, and upon returning had a chest cold. I went to the doctor, who said it was early bronchitis and sent me home. As they days passed I continued to get weaker and lose breath. I thought it was pneumonia and planned to go to the doctor the next day. Instead, I collapsed unconscious at home. When the ambulance brought me to the hospital and I was revived I remembered your episode of DVT and informed the cardiologist of my recent flights. He immediately gave me a cat scan and found multiple, large embolisms in my lungs and heart. Long story short, I am still hospitalized but improving and the diagnosis is a 100% recovery. I am told I SHOULD have, not could have, died when I arrived. Your sharing of your DVT story saved my life, kept my young wife from being widowed, and my 5 year old daughter Lucia (named after Lucia Micarelli) and 3 year old son Vincent from losing a father at a young age. So if you read this email, Thank-you again from a fellow DVT survivor. Funny how an interest in music and distant events such as your DVT that are seemingly remote can have such an impact on a stranger and a family you have never met. Read more: thejethrotullboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tales&action=display&thread=2597#ixzz1oGyP7co7
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Post by jtul07 on Mar 5, 2012 15:12:39 GMT -5
Yikes, no ladders for me! Jtull07 asked me to take my post from Deep Vein Thrombosis and move it over here. This is actually an email I sent to Ian last month: I can honestly say Ian Anderson has saved my life. I am still in the hospital as I type this, but I just sent the following email to Ian and hope he reads it: Ian, I have been a hardcore fan since the '80's and seen dozens of shows. I am 42, and currently hospitalized for a near death experience with DVT/Pulmonary embolisms. I recently flew roundtrip to Germany from the U.S. for work, and upon returning had a chest cold. I went to the doctor, who said it was early bronchitis and sent me home. As they days passed I continued to get weaker and lose breath. I thought it was pneumonia and planned to go to the doctor the next day. Instead, I collapsed unconscious at home. When the ambulance brought me to the hospital and I was revived I remembered your episode of DVT and informed the cardiologist of my recent flights. He immediately gave me a cat scan and found multiple, large embolisms in my lungs and heart. Long story short, I am still hospitalized but improving and the diagnosis is a 100% recovery. I am told I SHOULD have, not could have, died when I arrived. Your sharing of your DVT story saved my life, kept my young wife from being widowed, and my 5 year old daughter Lucia (named after Lucia Micarelli) and 3 year old son Vincent from losing a father at a young age. So if you read this email, Thank-you again from a fellow DVT survivor. Funny how an interest in music and distant events such as your DVT that are seemingly remote can have such an impact on a stranger and a family you have never met. Read more: thejethrotullboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tales&action=display&thread=2597#ixzz1oGyP7co7Thanks Koba the Cat. Your story is amazing too and fits perfect in Tull Survival. The power of Tull can save lives!
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