Close calls

[Drella]

We've all had them. Hopefully, they have been nothing more than just that,, a close call.

 

Tell em' if you got em'....

[MasterBlaster]

Not me, everything I've done/rigged/roped went perfect! (LOL)

[Drella]

Well, here’s mine..

 

Doing a large Cherry take down next to the street,, there was three of us on the crew—me, my boss and a ground man.

 

I’m doing the removal and I’m all finished with limbing, so all the brush was about to be chipped—while I remained in the tree, chunking it down in 24” sections.

 

The tree was approxiametly 40” in diameter and extremely heavy, of course,, being a Cherry and all..

 

As I finished cutting each piece, I’d snap my saw back to my saddle, look in all directions to check for my co-workers position, then push each chunk off so it would land as close to the base of the tree as possible. At this point, I was about 50’ up.

 

Well, they wouldn’t call them accidents if they didn’t happen the way that they do, “by complete surprise.”

 

Now the chipper is fired up and brush, by the arm-loads- are being sent through the hopper. Between me cutting and the chipping, not a sound could be heard –not unless I whistled, or they happened to look up to see how far I’ve come on my cut.

 

As I finished my cut, I put my saw away, looked for my bro’s, then pushed off the 200lb. monster.

 

Then, out of nowhere, my ground man decided to waltz between the tree and some stacked brush,, right underneath where I’m dropping the wood.

 

It went sailing straight down and he was walking right towards it. I hadn’t had time to whistle, all I could do is watch in horror as this could be a terrible accident in the making.

 

John, "the ground man about to be splattered," had a pitch-fork over his shoulder, walking it to the chipper.

 

My heart was in my throat and for once, this accident was happening at lightning speed.

 

Just as he got directly under my tree, the chunk landing square on the pitch-fork hanging over his right shoulder, sending it flying in the air, as the wood continued it’s journey to the ground.

 

 

John immediately fell to the ground on his knees, grabbing his shoulder,, now in excruciating pain. That was the first time that I yelled at a co-worker for being such an idiot, but yet, happy at the same time that he was still alive.

 

That was just one of my close calls…

[David Humphries]

Well, here’s mine..

 

That was just one of my close calls…

 

Ok, this obviously happens, and probably far too often.

 

But I would suggest that it would be an act of incompetence to release an unrigged section of timber in to the drop zone without pre checking every single time.

 

I work in the LA arena, so probably do not have the same time pressures on job completion as a lot of you guys in the comercial/private sector.

But speed should be unconditionally, a poor country cousin of Safety.

 

How could anyone tell a wife/child or mother of a groundy that's just been squished, that their beloved died/got maimed due to a moment of incompetence,unprofessionality and an absolute disregard for human life.

 

Th risks and fatalities in this job are high enough without uping the odds.

 

Stay focused, stay safe.

[ecolojim]

Ok, this obviously happens, and probably far too often.

 

But I would suggest that it would be an act of incompetence to release an unrigged section of timber in to the drop zone without pre checking every single time.

 

That's certainly not how I read it!

 

As I finished my cut, I put my saw away, looked for my bro’s, then pushed off the 200lb. monster.

 

Then, out of nowhere, my ground man decided to waltz between the tree and some stacked brush,, right underneath where I’m dropping the wood.

 

Sounds to me like he was taking every precaution and checking every drop, and it was definitely the groundie who was not paying attention. Incompetance on the part of the groundie perhaps, but to call Drella incompetent for something that wasnt his fault seems a bit steep mate

 

perhaps in hind sight he could have whistled every time to make the other guys aware of every piece being dropped, but is not their job description to be aware?

[Ian Leach]

Someone surely should of kept an eye on the climber, to warn groundies of this. On the other hand i always look up if im about to go under a tree to clear up common sense really. Both partly to blame here IMO.

[David Humphries]

That's certainly not how I read it!

 

 

 

Sounds to me like he was taking every precaution and checking every drop, and it was definitely the groundie who was not paying attention. Incompetance on the part of the groundie perhaps, but to call Drella incompetent for something that wasnt his fault seems a bit steep mate

 

perhaps in hind sight he could have whistled every time to make the other guys aware of every piece being dropped, but is not their job description to be aware?

 

If a climber was taking every precaution, and checks that there are absolutely no targets in or coming into the DZ, then groundies, (whether they are at fault or not) would not be at risk.

 

 

Jim, I was not at that site, at that time, so really my point is aimed at the situation and not an individual.

Hence no mention directly of Drella being incompetant. Please re-read my post.

[ecolojim]

Yeah that's fair enough, my bad, group hug

 

Just to throw another perspective in, perhaps some blame also has to lie with the 'boss' who was also present on the ground

[ecolojim]

I suppose my original point was that Ive seen it happen first hand at my first job. climber checked below, climber paused to make sure nobody was near or heading towards the drop zone, he loosed the limb, and in the time it took to fall, another groudie had walked towards and got the shock of his life. Granted not as close as this situation by a long way, but I suppose the problem of space is far compounded in road side work.

 

I suppose what im getting at is that one person's complete diligence counts for squat if the team isnt singing from the same choir sheet??

 

We had a rule at my first job, every time the climber gunned his saw, all eyes instantly went upwards. Seemed to work 99% of the time

 

Of course these are merely the ramblings of a person as green as the grass in comparison to most of you guys. Merely my observations

[Tom D]

I once felled the top off an ash on top of a groundie. in my defense it came over pretty slowly and at the time i finished my cut the landing zone was clear, then this guy with a strimmer casualy walked right under just as it was stating to go over! Amazingly it landed all around him brash first but did'nt actually hit him, he was sort of trapped inside it but unhurt.

 

I should point out that it was'nt my job and i was climing for someone else, the guy with the strimmer was not used to working on a tree site. just goes to show though that a but of on site induction for the inexperienced goes a long way.