... surveyor who lost six teeth and his eyesight

That is some scary stuff. Glad he is getting some compensation.

> That is some scary stuff. Glad he is getting some compensation.

Not really, especially for a surveyor's eyesight.

1,000,000.00 AED = 272,294.07 USD
Emirati Dirham US Dollar

Minus what the lawyers charge and whatever portion the operator was assessed, he will be lucky to see 10%.

🙁

I was always on super high alert when working around the "big dogs".
Actually, I just liking watching them work so I was always watching anyhow.
However, we had a super scary moment one day. The road builders were working on a new road we had already staked out for them. We were setup right where this new road going up hill that teed into the existing road which happend to be right where we were. We were taking shots on the running streams, ephemerals and perinneals. The "water boys" (ecologists) had already flagged and coded everything for us. We just had to take the shots and take in their codes. Tony, the PC, usually kept the field notes but I had figured out their codes by then so I got stuck with that duty. Tony was down in a running stream with the rod and Karen was running the gun while I kept up the with the codings. A road grader had just turned up that new road and got about 20 yards away when he lost all engine power (thus hydraulics) and started coming back at us backwards out of control. A super noisy environment was normal there so I didn't lookup when everyone started yelling. Tony had jumped into a CMP under the road and Karen took off running - all the while I'm still updating the notes. Just about the time I realized what was going on and jumped up to run (thank God I have good reflexes and fast on my feet), the operator pulled a hellish J-turn. It was awesome!!! We made eye contact just after he made his amazing turn.
We talked shortly afterwards. Made some jokes and nervously laughed about it. I think I said something like "between the 2 of us, I bet we had enough adrenaline flowing to feed a hundred diabetics". Funny maybe, but probably not far from the truth. We were both shaking like leaves in a wind-storm. Me and that operator had a special connection after that. We'd cross paths many times after that. We would just smile at each other, shake our heads and pat our hearts.
He would have been fine had he not pulled off that j-turn except maybe a whip-lash. I, however, would not be writing this right now.
Tony later gave me a very short lecture about "forget the gun! Just get out there!". I told him my last thought was about that f...ing gun. Don't worry.
I simply got caught off-guard being emmersed in the note taking. Lecture over.
I've never been nervous around the big toys at all. But, I sure have paid a ton more attention ever since.