Car jacking question

[Mark_T]

My daughter's boyfriend (usually referred to simply as "the lout") was changing the drop links on his dad's Caravan earlier this week.

It was classic:
-van lifted using factory jack and no supplementary support like ramps or jack stands. Didn't even slide the wheel underneath the vehicle as a "just in case"
-wheels not chocked because the emergency brake was set. Unfortunately nobody told him the ebrake didn't work.
-he was sitting in the wheel well doing the work

When the van rolled off the jack the brake rotor came down on his foot. He was lucky that he was working on gravel and not concrete. He was lucky that his dad was there and strong enough to lift the corner of the van enough for him to pull his foot out from under the rotor. He was lucky he just fractured a couple of bones.

[Frodo]

Jeez, I shudder reading stories like this. I still get nervous getting underneath the car even when there's jack(s) + jack stand(s) + one or two 'just-in-case' wheels slid under there.

My kid's gf at one point had a Mercury Marquis, a great tank of a car, that had its fuel pump go. Replacement entailed tank removal. I unenthusiastically volunteered to help and, unfortunately, the kid took me up on my offer. At that point I had had little experience working under cars and hadn't even really developed a real trust in stands. I kept sliding wheels and stacks of 2x12's etc under various places to be safe. At one point the kid complained with all the stuff under there we barely had room to work!

[Spinnaker]

Another story:
A guy I worked with had his brother pinned under his car when the cheap jack stands he was using failed. The pin sheared off and the stand collapsed down. This was back in the 60's when we all drove Detroit iron that weighed over 2 tons. The force of the impact spread the legs out on the jack stand. He didn't get hurt because the stand only collapsed to its lowest level and only pinned him.
Don't ever buy those cheap tin can gauge jack stands. You only have one life, isn't it worth a few bucks more to keep it.