Tree work in London??? so who is it then :)

[Al Cormack]

Never a truer word spoken or typed.

 

I have done this sort of working plenty of times. Imagine doing it day in day out, attempting to complete 6 or 8 of these trees in a day just to make basic wage.

 

You would need an extra truck just for the signs and cones alone. Let alone the time taken to setup and dismantle the Tm for every tree.

 

I am glad I don't do this type of work anymore.

 

The nightmare starts before even getting your site - sorting out all the parking suspensions! Working out what needs to be suspended, how many spaces for a days work, giving 10 days notice to Westminster and then it pours with rain so all has to be done again.

Or you get to site and there's still cars in the way because people ignored the signs or are on holiday, so you have to wait for the lifting lorry to arrive....

 

Glad I don't do this anymore as well!!

[Stuart Witt]

Example:

single lane closure with traffic light control on a straight road, and the cars can see who is stopped by the lights or who's not.

 

So you want too put both lights on red so you can just free fall the branches into the road.

 

Whilst doing all this an impatient driver! races through as he thinks the lights are faulty.

 

A way i dealt with this to stop it from happening you need to go to the extent of either putting tape across the road or have a few cones in the road also.

 

the simplest of things are never as straight forward when dealing with the public, you just have to go a little further to prevent the inevitable.

 

It doe not matter how much you! if there is a incident there will be someone blame. Its just a matter of is it us or them.

[Rupe]

Yes, jumping the light is illegal (I think, are temporary lights covered by traffic law) but if you drop a branch on the car thats breaking through then you have allowed that situation to happen and so your are wrong. If your set up isnt working (an accident proves its not working) then its wrong. But you wont be guilty of any breaches in HSE stuff, but doesnt mean your not liable.

 

You have to make it work so there are no accidents, and in the video here there was a close one but no accident so no real problem, they are probably still working like that today, and in general they are doing enough to make it safe as it can be.

[Gareth Dalzell]

Yes, jumping the light is illegal (I think, are temporary lights covered by traffic law) but if you drop a branch on the car thats breaking through then you have allowed that situation to happen and so your are wrong. If your set up isnt working (an accident proves its not working) then its wrong. But you wont be guilty of any breaches in HSE stuff, but doesnt mean your not liable.

 

You have to make it work so there are no accidents, and in the video here there was a close one but no accident so no real problem, they are probably still working like that today, and in general they are doing enough to make it safe as it can be.

 

No technically correct. A system that has been abused or by-passed my alter the apportionment of blame considerably. But without all the facts it is difficult to give a definitive answer to this situation. From what I can see, you could argue apportionment of blame quite nicely.

[carlos]

cant see too much wrong with any of it to be honest apart from the groundy should of been stopping the traffic further away from the dropzone and i suppose the cyclist could of stopped a bit sooner.

hard job though in london, i get stressed just visiting the place!!

carl

[j r hartly]

Groundies fault! Shoud've been watching the traffic he'd got to stop. Hes lucky it was a near miss with a cyclist and not a splatting from a bus, you cannae trust the public!

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Rupe]

No technically correct. A system that has been abused or by-passed my alter the apportionment of blame considerably. But without all the facts it is difficult to give a definitive answer to this situation. From what I can see, you could argue apportionment of blame quite nicely.

 

Yeah, I suppose, if you had it all set up perfect and someone broke the speed limit or was drunk, then their failiure to comply with various laws would be to blame for the accident rather than the contractor. So when I said the accident proves its not set up right, then that was a bit of a broad statement. Other factors coudl cause the accident, and the contracotrs cant really allow for every type of ignorance from the public.

[TREE-SURGEON-ESSEX]

I think the law should state do not come within 3m min of any coned off work area, that way the general public (idiots) have not got a leg to stand on when they are at fault for bending under the barrier tape hoping over the cones and ignoring the guy lit up like a Christmas tree telling them to wait 10 seconds.

 

I guarantee you if you hit someone on the head even tho you did everything by the book to secure the worksite, you will be prosecuted.

 

As for cheap contracting blame the council they don't have to use the cheapest but I promise you they will, and that forces cheap prices and low quality work.

[nifty]

i know this fella workin in the video, and he is a brilliant groundie! the speed you have to work at just to make target and the intensity of the work which leaves you completely knackered all the time, unfortunately means that corners are cut alot of the time. They aren't proper excuses but at the end of the day we have to make our money, the teams are generally 2 man jobs because if we have 3 it means we have to do more trees, i like having a really good site set up for more peace of mind but it never ceases to amaze me just how ignorant the general public are, i had a woman push her pram into the drop zone last week while my collegue in the tree was doin the back cut on a 12m legnth from the top of the tree, she protested sayin she ws in a hurry, i just got her to go back when the branch landed right where her pram had been a couple of seconds earlier! no matter what you do it always seems like in london its never enough.

[kevwrenn]

I'm sure this isn't restricted to London street works.... sleepy Lincoln is much the same. Mr Wiggins has a lot to answer for, as do typical LA contracts. An extra body on the ground would be a big help, as would a little more respect for the hardness of wood from the general public.