Climbing accident, Northwich, Cheshire

[woody paul]

22 minutes ago, MattyF said:

So knowing the area I’m curious if you could have got a tractor and forestry winch in the woods either the side of the rootball or side it was hung up in ? 

You don't need to get tractor in wood, maybe redirect winch cable through wood with pulleys. 

I ve pulled trees over from front drive of house by reducing winch cable down side of bungalow and into back garden. 

Edited Friday at 10:55 by woody paul

[Haironyourchest]

That chap will almost certainly have lifelong disabilities on account of this. A bloody shame, and he was just after buying his own home at 25 as well, which he had to sell. Hope he finds his new vocation soon.

 

A thought occurred: when a guy is actually killed by a tree, in situations like this, what happens to the tree? Someone else has to finish the job, right? What happens to the timber after? Would anyone want it for firewood after it had crushed someone to death? It's would be sort of cursed timber, in a way, no? Do they leave it in the woods or what? Thankfully it's a rare enough event there's probably no unwritten rules about it so each tree service or county council clean up crew will deal with it differently, one presumes. What would we do with it? I think I'd probably leave it for habitat.

[woody paul]

4 minutes ago, Haironyourchest said:

That chap will almost certainly have lifelong disabilities on account of this. A bloody shame, and he was just after buying his own home at 25 as well, which he had to sell. Hope he finds his new vocation soon.

 

A thought occurred: when a guy is actually killed by a tree, in situations like this, what happens to the tree? Someone else has to finish the job, right? What happens to the timber after? Would anyone want it for firewood after it had crushed someone to death? It's would be sort of cursed timber, in a way, no? Do they leave it in the woods or what? Thankfully it's a rare enough event there's probably no unwritten rules about it so each tree service or county council clean up crew will deal with it differently, one presumes. What would we do with it? I think I'd probably leave it for habitat.

A lot of members of the public would not be worried were there logs came from, let a loan know about an accident with tree and put the two together. 

[MattyF]

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

You don't need to get tractor in wood, maybe redirect winch cable through wood with pulleys. 

I ve pulled trees over from front drive of house by reducing winch cable down side of bungalow and into back garden. 

That is very true but I’ll still ask that question, not out to tell any one how I would do it but just interested. 

[GarethM]

Either way whoever agreed the climb will be working in Asda afterwards.

[NJA]

I'm a feller not a climber so can't comment on this, but have questioned climbers a number of times 'I could fell this tree through that gap, why are you climbing it'

Never witnessed a bad accident fortunately 

Gravity is an amazing thing, if you cut at the bottom it'll always come down.

Sure some climbers just think everything has to be climbed.  Interesting what has been pointed out, the first thing with WAH is do you need to be WAH?

Poor lad, hope he recovers and finds himself a new or slightly different career.

 

[Peasgood]

2 hours ago, MattyF said:

So knowing the area I’m curious if you could have got a tractor and forestry winch in the woods either the side of the rootball or side it was hung up in ? 

Not my area of expertise at all so can't give anything other than a non professional opinion.

Do I think you could have safely got the tree down without climbing, yes I do.

I don't think the issue was entirely a climb/not climb thing. If he hadn't tied himself to the bit he cut off events would be very different and there would be a tiktok video with lots of views for a completely different reason.

Top and tail of it is he completely ****************ed up and is now sadly paying a very high price.

[Haironyourchest]

Just watched the video again. He cut the tree about half way up the stem, essentially buckling the tree. Ok, he was top roped off another tree, apparently the idea being he would swing out of the way as the tree buckled. Forgot he was stropped to the problem tree. This is the working theory.

 

But even if he had not been stropped to the problem tree...how could anyone think they would get away with this? The swing is one thing. A hell of a swing. But the buckling top was bound to come back at him. Even if he had swung "out of the way" there was a good chance it goes hits him as it comes down. The top is what crushed him after he landed.

 

Any way I run the "model" that half top of the tree is going to come down in an unpredictable way. Combined with an uncontrolled massive swing as the escape route...? It doesn't compute at all. I can't fathom how an apparently experienced and capable guy could think this would ever, ever work out.

 

I'd like to hear a retrospective analysis with the chap when he's recovered. It could give fascinating insights from a psychological standpoint. What makes people do these things? What was he thinking/feeling at the time. What led up to this? 

[spuddog0507]

1 hour ago, NJA said:

I'm a feller not a climber so can't comment on this, but have questioned climbers a number of times 'I could fell this tree through that gap, why are you climbing it'

Never witnessed a bad accident fortunately 

Gravity is an amazing thing, if you cut at the bottom it'll always come down.

Sure some climbers just think everything has to be climbed.  Interesting what has been pointed out, the first thing with WAH is do you need to be WAH?

Poor lad, hope he recovers and finds himself a new or slightly different career.

 

Glad you said that you have questioned climbers a number of times,, because I have over the years,, will probably get slatted for this next comment,, over the years I have worked with a lot of climbers, and still do, most are just average sorry to say, I know about 20 lads who climbe and TBH there is only 4 I would employ and there age range is from late 20s to mid 40s but all have one thing in common they come from a forestry back ground, so if it don't need climbing it don't get climbed,,sorry to say but some of the younger climbers i know think they are the dogs nuts and someone like me knows F- - - - - - l  because I am just a silly old bunt  (only 45yrs in the job),, the attitude needs to change, when I was learning I listened to the guy I worked with as I respected his many years of experience and I am still here doing it un scaved,

As  others have said HSE will be all over this and some serious questions will be asked ??,, I think the industry needs a big shake up ATM to avoid accidents like this and far to many people pushing the boundaries to far, 

Sorry this incident happened but yes accidents do happen and i wish the lad all the best and hope he makes a full recovery and goes back to the job of climbing a bit older and wiser,,

 

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

1 hour ago, Haironyourchest said:

Just watched the video again. He cut the tree about half way up the stem, essentially buckling the tree. Ok, he was top roped off another tree, apparently the idea being he would swing out of the way as the tree buckled. Forgot he was stropped to the problem tree. This is the working theory.

 

But even if he had not been stropped to the problem tree...how could anyone think they would get away with this? The swing is one thing. A hell of a swing. But the buckling top was bound to come back at him. Even if he had swung "out of the way" there was a good chance it goes hits him as it comes down. The top is what crushed him after he landed.

 

Any way I run the "model" that half top of the tree is going to come down in an unpredictable way. Combined with an uncontrolled massive swing as the escape route...? It doesn't compute at all. I can't fathom how an apparently experienced and capable guy could think this would ever, ever work out.

 

I'd like to hear a retrospective analysis with the chap when he's recovered. It could give fascinating insights from a psychological standpoint. What makes people do these things? What was he thinking/feeling at the time. What led up to this? 

I’m afraid there was nothing done right in this situation ,  he just go at it , and no one stop him , I still wanted to understand what he wanted to achieve there , is there was a plan to rig anything (which is to me was impossible with no crane, even with one is dodge I would say) ,or everything should just drop on the road (then what was the reason to climb on it , just cut at the bottom and drag it in any suitable direction ?) at least maybe climb opposite tree and cut holding branches slowly to let wind blown go ( I don’t like this as well) ! The thing : is I don’t even see anything worth saving with that risk! I can’t believe that there is was lack of funding either! Main question is still who is the manager of all that ,it obviously wasn’t a climber , so I blame manager for this messy situation . My ground person saved me more than few times from stupid mistakes, as sometimes just simple question ARE YOU SURE , will save you and what we see there shiny new clothes, mobile phones on hand , and so on! Climber was obviously doing wrong things, and no one stop him, so that mean people on the ground was not qualified for this work, I just see massive compensation coming to help the lad to recover! Maybe climber can discuss that on this forum , so we all learn something new on his accident. Or if investigators report posted there so we can read it. It my safe someone in the future.