Close calls

[Dean Lofthouse]

I always tell my groundies "when the saw is buzzing, it's cutting and something is going to be coming down"

 

All well and good saying it's the climbers fault but he doesn't always have a clear 360 degree veiw for leaf on other trees.

 

Half the reason I don't like the chipper running, shoving brash in as it is dropped is you cant communicate and you can't hear the saw cutting.

[Will Hinchliffe]

Yesterday my work mate was leaning on a screen in a casual and stylish manner while I was stump grinding and the screen collapsed. He fell on top of the cutting arm of the stump grinder, no injuries but my heart stopped. Respect the exclusion zones.

[Sambo]

I always tell my groundies "when the saw is buzzing, it's cutting and something is going to be coming down"

 

All well and good saying it's the climbers fault but he doesn't always have a clear 360 degree veiw for leaf on other trees.

 

Half the reason I don't like the chipper running, shoving brash in as it is dropped is you cant communicate and you can't hear the saw cutting.

 

I should imagine many a close call (or even incident) has been caused by the chipper prohibiting good comminucation!!

I remember a nightmarish day lowering a big poplar tree with my boss. He was climbing and doing the rigging from the top and i was on the capstan. another collegue, despite me telling him not to, kept firing up the chipper at crucial moments and obliterating any instructions called down by my boss - very stressful!

[Drella]

I've got another good one;

 

It was a friday, I just turned 21, I had plans to get spun out after work. The day turned out rainy and it was just my boss and I. After most the day in the shopp, he decided we could use the window of sunshine and head over to a job where we could get in and out fast enough to beat the rain again.

 

We pulled up and just behind the client's home was their backyard and immediately the woods. At just the edge of the woods was a giant, leaning tulip poplar,, kind of shaped like a upside down "J" -- or a "7" for the rest of you who can't pick up what I'm putting down..

 

Well, the boss is standing there staring at it and I'm just waiting for him to say; "grab your gear." (I used to hate when he said that.)

 

Just then he grabbed the throw-line and decided it was too hazzardous to climb, so he set the line high with the top, tied off a workline- and we both were going to pull the rope with all we got before attempting to remove it by climbing. Afterall,, all we had to do was get it down and let the woods use it as fodder.

 

So here we both are pulling this 90' tree, letting it rock,, then pulling again when it's about to return with the swaying movement.

 

Now we are both laughing at how silly we look dug in with one foot forward, almost on top of each other, pulling with everything we've got and the tree seems solid as stone.

 

Just then the tree goes CRACK! and we both fall on top of one another, as the whole top comes straight at us both.

 

Now we're both scurrying like rats to get the hell out of the way as the rope is the first to come coiling down on top of us. We both just escape with about 10' of room from the tree as the wind from the top sends leaves and debris flying past us.

 

Neither one of really made it back to our feet until after the top came crashing down we were pushing so hard to get out of there...

 

Needless to say I lived and was still able to go home that night to celebrate my birthday -with copious amounts of trendy chemical amusements aids...

 

 

 

I've got a few more in the memory banks,, but I was hoping others would share there's too. I haven't even got to the one where I lost the nails on three of my fingers on my right hand,,or blew out my miniscus joint in my knee doing a silly little sweetgum removal....

[Ian150482]

I always tell my groundies "when the saw is buzzing, it's cutting and something is going to be coming down"

 

All well and good saying it's the climbers fault but he doesn't always have a clear 360 degree veiw for leaf on other trees.

 

Half the reason I don't like the chipper running, shoving brash in as it is dropped is you cant communicate and you can't hear the saw cutting.

 

 

When the saw is running no-one enters the drop zone until my saw is off.

[Drella]

When the saw is running no-one enters the drop zone until my saw is off.

 

In a perfect world, yes.. But remember, we're all in a line of work that doesn't require much college to enter. In fact, even a dummy like me can do it with only a highschool diploma..

 

They're called accidents because they're just that,, an accident.

 

We've all had things on our minds where our complete attention is not on what we are doing 100%. I've been doing the tree thing for so long I could do it blindfolded. Though I'm also one who can multi-task quite well and I always have my act wired tight.. But I'm one in a million baby....

 

I've been on many jobs where I've had to train a newbie from a day-labor resource almost everyother day. And let me tell you, alot of those guys are only interested in getting enough $$$ to buy beer at the end of the day... So just where do you think the're attention is going to be? On you? Maybe for a minute, then it's back on the divorse, the child support payments, the probation officer, the apartment they're about to loose because of their circumstances,, just too many things to mention that can rob our minds of attention....

[Dean Lofthouse]

It isn't the only precaution in place Drella.

 

That combined with vigilence of the cutter, the groundsman etc etc

 

All these combined "add upto" a safe workplace or reduced risk workplace:001_smile:

[Ian150482]

Nobodys perfect, but the way we work as a team, everyday i go to my job before i climb its the same lectuer. When the saw is running dont come under the tree. Simple. When its comes to problems at home, they should stay at home, its not easy, i know, but the job we all do is too dangerous to not think of our surroundings.

[Drella]

When its comes to problems at home, they should stay at home,

 

 

That combined with vigilence of the cutter, the groundsman etc etc

 

All these combined "add upto" a safe workplace or reduced risk workplace:001_smile:

 

 

Alright-- alright you two turkeys.. Listen, I'm not painting a picture of a perfect world where all of us have our heads on straight and our fullest attention 100% of the time while we're managing a safe worksite. I'm telling it as it is, no BS.

 

I'm also not saying that my crew was anything less than careful. We never had one injury other than the common ones that occur when working the body to death doing this most back-breaking work.

 

Sometimes things just take a turn for the worst. And it will happen to us all at one point or another.

 

I'm a cyclist and during season, I put 300 miles a week on my bike. It's said that they're two kinds of cyclists; "Those who have wrecked - and those who will wreck." It's out of our ability to be 100% perfect. How can it be otherwise? Afterall,, we're human right?

Prone to make mistakes and full of faults..

 

Now,, let's have fun on this thread, post your mistakes as they've happened and quite posting like we're Gods of all we do --and everything is perfect under our watch..

[sonic]

can i ask does anyone use radios to comunicate between ground and climber

there are plenty of low cost radios that with addition of a throat mic/ear piece would work over the noise from saws etc