[Alex.q]

Not near death, but quite brutal. In 2010, we, like many teams, had a kicker that rotated around a central pivot, powered by a ton of surgical tubing. The top of the kicker had a gate latch to hold t in the ready position. Because there was a lot of tension on the piece, it took a fair amount of force to open the latch. While testing, one of our mentors put a hand on the robot to steady it while he manually pulled the latch. The kicker swung down and slammed his hand against another piece, deeply cutting his hand by his thumb. I think he needed stitches and was wearing a wrist brace thing to demobilize his thumb. With the liability issue, I think he believed it was his own fault and didn't blame the team.

Lessons: Beware of fast and powerful mechanisms, and keep hands away from loaded mechanisms if powered by springs or surgical tubing. Protect sharp/narrow pieces of metal in the bot. (we covered the exposed edge of that piece of sheet metal with pneumatic tubing slit in half. We also made a brace to keep the robot from firing if cocked and not on the field. We have also begun putting warning signs on dangerous parts of the robot.)