Well yesterday i thought i had ended my career as a professional driver, I was in the back of my 7.5t fridge just about to climb down using the steps, when they came unclipped and i ended up landing ontop of them on the tarmac.
I was in agony, the air turned blue and tbh i feel sorry for anyone around me at that time as i was shouting some obscenities. The depot i was at called for a Meat Wagon, and they told the girls over the phone not to let me move. i was on the Wet and Cold tarmac for about 10 minutes, during which time the initial pain had subsided and i now felt like i had gone 10 rounds with mike tyson, and just felt bruised and beaten. I thought i had broken my back at first, but i had no loss of feeling, no loss of movement etc.
Paramedics got there and got me to slowly see if i could stand up, checked my back, and i have 3 grazes on my back / bum where i hit the ladders. They were happy to either take me to get checked at liverpool hospital (leaving the truck and £3k of chilled perishables - and no way of getting back to the truck after being seen) or to let me get on my way.
I chose the latter of the 2 and decided to do the last 2 drops i had, luckily the lads at wehere i was tipping were quite understanding when i told them ’ normally i’d handball them off to you but ive done my back in, [showed my back and the grazes]’ and they unloaded the truck for me 
My place were very understanding aswell when i told them id had a fall, they said ‘its upto you mate, if you feel you cant carry on then dont, but if you can carry on dont rush , take your time.’ the only upside to this is that weekends is overtime rate all shift.
Got home after drivng as carefully as i could, both in the truck and the car, so as to avoid being thrown about the cab / front of car, and to reduce the impact of potholes. Picked the wife up and promptly went up to A+E to get checked over.
The doctor decided i must have just bruised something, although i had no x-ray done for some strange reason, would have thought it was standard practice when someone presents with back pain after a fall.
So a warning to everyone, if you have steps that are removable and get stored on the back of one of your doors, be very careful when using them. they are down right dangerous.
edit: been thinking how the steps could come detatched. and can come up with only 1 explanation. As i was climbing onto the steps the guy driving forklift must have lifted the forks to take the weight off the suspension and then put the pallet back down again, which would make the ladders raise up a bit and come out of the groove they fit into. below is a pic of similar ladders. imagine underneath the top step a lip that sticks down about 1 inch. this fitted into a slot on the truck body to hold the ladders in position.
hehe
