Accidents at work

[alistairmagee]

Hi Every One...

 

I wanted to post this thread to see if anyone had any opinions/advice of like for like experiences either as the employer of the employee?

 

Last year toward the end of October I drove to a job to work as a sub contract climber for a day, as i have done many times before for this particular Company.

 

Upon arrival I was confronted with the facts that the task in hand was far from ideal nor was it partially safe in relation to the way I would run a job of similar size.

 

The employer for the day asked me to climb up a 15-20m high larch tree which was situated over hanging a roadside and dismantle it as per the consultants report, However with no traffic management and only 2 people on the ground of which neither were wearing high-vee and had no means to control the traffic/ public.

 

The tree was leaning at approx. 35 degrees over the road and was growing between other broad leaved canopies, the road was steep and in the middle of the countryside where the speed was set at the national limit.

 

I took one look at the tree and the situation and politely declined, which in turn was met with the response that he would fell it across the road and myself and my groundy would stand watch while he did so, at the time i was thinking well its not the way I would do it, however the road was relatively unused and so as a percussion i parked my sign written vehicle across one end and so did the guy we were working for at the other.

 

The Guy cranked up a saw and started with a back cut rather than the conventional directional felling cut, I watched a safe distance as the tree started to splitter and buckle under the compression of its own weight and fold over. The tree fell across the road and landed into the canopies of some beech trees on the other side of the road, the guy then began to sned the stem and managed to get the tree to fall to ground level and continued working his way up to the tree top.

mean while, myself and my guy started clearing the side branches and disposing of them back on to the verge where the tree had been felled from.

 

approx 3-5 mins later we had cleared the branches and started moving the logs, all the time watching the tree being cut up in case any thing moved or rolled over, I remember seeing my groundy walking from in front of me on the road surface picking up a log and walking away to my right side and behind me, I glanced at the tree being worked upon once again and bent down to pick up another log, I picked up the piece of timber and turned way to dispose of it.... I then heard a Loud panicked call from my groundy shouting "watch out" I glanced over my right shoulder to see a large tree top falling towards my head, and it was only approx 2 ft away, I instinctively turned to protect my face and head, and felt the full force of it strike my right shoulder and flatten me to the tarmac!

 

It all happened very fast, I rolled over as the tree top passed over my body and I fell face down on to the road surface, and rolled side ways down the steep road, as I did so the heavy tree top which weighed approx 400kg trapped my ankle and as my memento carried my down the road i was stopped and trapped by the tree top, at this point I felt and extremely sharp shooting pain on my left ankle as i later learned it had broke under the stress.

 

The guy and my groundy went straight to work removing the top and clearing the road, meanwhile I was left on the road surface in a great deal of pain almost crying as my ankle swelled to the size of a football in my boot.

 

To top it all off the guy wondered over to me 2 mins later and made some remark "that I had not been thinking about what I was doing" neither my groundy nor the boss of the day made any attempt to help me up or see if I was ok! which at the time i remember thinking they were both t**ts.

 

i finally got myself up and hopped to one side of the road, and tried to get up the road to my van, 20 mins later my groundy finally brought the van to me once the road was cleared and he drove me to hospital.

 

At no point did the guy I was working for make any effort of an apology and he made no attempt to help me in any way, he failed to surrender his insurance documents and report the accident to HSE, Finally when I did manage to get some insurance documents, in december after already being off work for nearly 2 months i made a claim against him for loss of earnings, his reply was that despite hime directly employing 6 people and using sub contractors that my broken ankle was simply an accident and he/ his company was not at fault.

 

Its now the beginning of april, ive been back to work full time for about 2 months as I simply couldn't afford to be off any longer with no money coming in, I had to sell 2 items of plant machinery so that I could get my cash flow going again, ive lost 3 months of work during the busiest time of year and in total it has cost me over £33,000 in lost work and jobs I had in to do.

 

His insurance company have still yet to admit fault and offer a settlement, I am not motivated by the money or a pay out and i never have of would be, I am pretty annoyed and frustrated at how some one can cause all that pain and stress and then try to fight his end as if he was the one injured party.

His work and life style has not even skipped a beat since that day......

 

For 3 months i couldn't drive, walk, see customers, make money to pay bills and i simply got very down and depressed, after working the past 8-9 weeks after getting back to work i have only just cleared my dept of being off work for those 3 months, my ankle is still not completely healed.

 

This event has opened my eyes to the risks we as tree surgeons take and further more the implications upon ones well being and life as a result of an accident at work, its not the first time or the 100th time i have been contracting around the uk and got to site only to confronted by such a situation where people do not appreciate the risks nor respect the implications of what can happen...

 

im sure others will have experienced such instances too.

 

thanks for reading my thread, would be cool to hear what you think.

[Rich2484]

Either you need a solicitor or one of those now win no fee people to look into it.

 

Can't help any with experience.

[landrover 101]

What rich said

 

 

The no win no fee if they think you have a good case will get a result fairly quickly

 

 

 

 

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[slack ma girdle]

Either you need a solicitor or one of those now win no fee people to look into it.

 

Can't help any with experience.

 

[Johny Walker]

alister, get the legal bods involved,with his arogant attitued he couldnt give a flying feck about you or your situation, as for the groundie ,you need a new 1,

[Andy Collins]

Alistair, did you have personal accident insurance. I ask for two reasons.

1) you would have some income whilst off recovering

2) your insurance company would probably (almost certainly) seek recompense from his EL insurance.

What a horrible situation to be in, I really feel for you. This is a career that can end abruptly, through sickness or injury, bad enough if its something you've done wrong, worse if its the responsibility of another party. All the best,

Andy.

[skyhuck]

As a subby you would need to be charging over £350 per day and working 7 days per week to have lost the money you claim and thats not allowing for the costs, such as fuel, that you have not incurred, so did you really have a day rate of over £400 and work 7 days per week??

[easy-lift guy]

Your story was very well documented from memory so I suspect you will never forget the accident. Since the employer took command of the situation and relegated your job to groundie support. I would have made sure both you as a sub and the employer worked out the details of the takedown before he ever started with the saw in the first place. No doubt there was a complete breakdown of communication and the fact that an ambulance was not called right after the accident occured is a mystery to me?.

As for your groundie, why did he not come to your aide on the spot?. I would of contacted the ambulance myself and made sure the groundie did nothing else until emergency services arrived. As far as the employer is concerned I am not sure what legal rights you would have as a sub contractor. Did you have a contract with the employer explaining all of your legal rights and responsbilites?. I believe you will need to secure and attorney in the end to get any sort of closure on the matter. See if you can find one that will handle your case on contingent.

easy-lift guy

Edited April 7, 2013 by easy-lift guy
spelling

[Johny Walker]

As a subby you would need to be charging over £350 per day and working 7 days per week to have lost the money you claim and thats not allowing for the costs, such as fuel, that you have not incurred, so did you really have a day rate of over £400 and work 7 days per week??

 

dave, yr short of a few facts yet again dave ,save yr apinion till you have them all

[skyhuck]

dave, yr short of a few facts yet again dave ,save yr apinion till you have them all

 

Its a question.

 

I'm working with the facts given.