Another tragic death

[aspenarb]

22 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Very sad story. Impossible to comment on the time pressure part of the job - a 70 tree conifer hedge can take a day or a month dependent on a whole world of factors.

£2500 for a 3 man team for 4 days has plenty of margin in it - not the end of the world if it overruns a bit (particularly if the chap was taking half the dosh, as suggested in the article). 

It is unfortunately not the first of this specific type of accident - pressure/fatigue/complacency etc have led to this before and will probably lead to more in the future (as horrible as that is to think about). 

Thoughts to the family left behind, and the crew on site that day.

Take care everyone.

 This just about sums it .

 

Interesting point picked up on by the coroner.

 

Coroner Alison Mutch said: “This investigation gave rise to concern that risk of future deaths and action needs to be taken to eliminate any future risk of death.

“The thing that concerns me is the communication between a groundsman and the aerial climbers and the ratio of grounds people to aerial climbers. This needs further investigation.”

 

Mr Bancroft said: “Paul thew his tag line down and I caught it and attached the pull line to it then sent it back up to him. He climbed to the highest part of the tree, attached the pull line to the top of the tree and threw it out so that I could catch it. He climbed back into the conifer and I couldn’t see him at all because there was so much foliage.

 

The report also noted the groundie and climber were not within sight of each other, this is not uncommon but on the same token with helmet two way radio now widely available perhaps they should be considered essential.

[AHPP]

 This just about sums it .
 
Interesting point picked up on by the coroner.
 
Coroner Alison Mutch said: “This investigation gave rise to concern that risk of future deaths and action needs to be taken to eliminate any future risk of death.
“The thing that concerns me is the communication between a groundsman and the aerial climbers and the ratio of grounds people to aerial climbers. This needs further investigation.”
 
Mr Bancroft said: “Paul thew his tag line down and I caught it and attached the pull line to it then sent it back up to him. He climbed to the highest part of the tree, attached the pull line to the top of the tree and threw it out so that I could catch it. He climbed back into the conifer and I couldn’t see him at all because there was so much foliage.
 
The report also noted the groundie and climber were not within sight of each other, this is not uncommon but on the same token with helmet two way radio now widely available perhaps they should be considered essential.

I’ve been saying exactly this about helmet comms for ages. Someone will get hurt, a lawyer will ask what communication procedures were being used and a tree surgeon will say, “We usually just shout.”
Then the other side’s lawyer will point out that Bluetooth kits cost £30 per helmet and a judge will give someone a massive bill.

[wjotner]

On 03/12/2017 at 19:10, Mick Dempsey said:

Every job is about speed, time is money. That’s the way it is and always has been.

 

Sad to read about the young man, as Roseyweb says, easy to do that in rows of conifers.

 

Best thing we can do is think about the fella tomorrow morning and think twice.

Being quick isn't necessarily the same as been rushed. 

 

I've worked with climbers who are very fast. But to look at them, they're not rushing about. They just have a very sound technique, they make good decisions and work efficiently. That results in work being completed in good time. Rushing about usually creates mistakes, either by getting ropes in a tangle, making nests in the tree, breaking stuff on the ground, or in the worst case causing injury or death.

 

"More haste = less speed" is a very good adage in our line of work.

[thetoolnut]

It's the logical result of the race to the bottom that exists in the industry. Very sad for his family, R.I.P.