First Accident!!!!!!

[mattylee]

Pass on my best wishes.

I've had a near miss when a carabina broke, and that was bad enough.

 

firstly i hope the guy is alright sounds terrible!

 

haryloon can u tell us more about your crab breakin!!!

[Hairyloon]

haryloon can u tell us more about your crab breakin!!!

Only since you asked.

It got turned around so the load was on the gate, which should have been strong enough, but clearly wasn't.

It broke.

Luckily one of the loops on my harness remained hooked into it, so I remained dangling, somewhat lop-sided.

 

On the same job I dropped my saw & it hit a branch. The handle smashed, jamming the throttle on full. That wasn't much fun either.

[Jason James Gairn]

Pass on my best wishes.

I've had a near miss when a carabina broke, and that was bad enough.

 

We need more info. What make and model of Crab was it? Do you have the batch number. But most of all do you have a photograph. To break acrab takes some force even across the gate. Because we use work positioning rather than fall protection, and the same crabs are used for rock climbing where the lead climber can easily freefall for 50 feet before impacting a carabina, I am very interested.

Please post details mr. Hairyloon.

Arn't loons an outdated fashion from the sixties only sported by hippy throwbacks? Hairy ones would be preposterous. Big foot styleee!

[Hairyloon]

Please post details mr. Hairyloon.

Sorry, it was a long time ago (2004?), and to be fair to the manufacturer, it was probably a bit old and knackered already.

Certainly taught me to inspect & renew my equipment more regularly.

 

Arn't loons an outdated fashion from the sixties only sported by hippy throwbacks? Hairy ones would be preposterous. Big foot styleee!

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.

[mattylee]

WOW! just when you think the things are bomb proof that happens... at least your still here to tell the story

[Tom2020]

Yeah it was all in place mate, it seems to have been when he realeased the first line he put up and was changing over, maybe he didnt connect to his harness properly or the karabiner didnt close, not good whatever really, sickening sound as he hit the ground...........

 

 

I go to college and we are getting told about stories like this all the time Our tutor has just put it stright to us now get on a branch make sure everything is in place then swap over

 

If not lets hope your groundie is there to catch you:thumbup:

[RobRainford]

geez, thats my worst fear, just not clipping in properly or something failing.

 

i witnessed a drop too on monday, nothing too severe, we were doing pole rescue and there was two guys on the pole about 15ft the rescuer had gone up, put in a pulley above the casualty and one of the instructors was telling him to not touch his prussik. He had just installed the casualties prussik to clip onto. Instead of lowering the extra on for theother guy, he decided his was the one to pull. The instructor was screaming dont touch the prussik but he did, and he came down pretty quickly, luckily it had been raining and the groundwas a bit soft, but there was a pile of logs prety near. That could have been considerably worse.

[combined tree services]

if it helps at all merrist wood have had one lad die there and two more lads hav had serious falls there , jack kenyon was telling us when we got there that the hse had only just allowed them to teach tree climbing again because a lad had fallen out of a tree on the course before us , he then told us to get our climbing kit s ready as we were going for a climb in the campus woods ha ha he's a great chap lol

[Ty Korrigan]

Had a 'moment' a week ago...

I didn't fall but it was a near thing.

I was topping out very skinny populars ready for felling.

I was using a wire strop and my work position strop as well which I'd wrapped around a branch I'd left to give me a more secure foothold.

I find skinny pole like trees a nightmare to climb.

When my groundsman pulled on the rope as I was doing the backcut a freakishly strong squall hit and the top sat back on my saw.

It creaked away and I could hear the hinge creaking and twisting when the squall passed and the top fell away badly, almost vertically and caught the branch with my W.P.Strop attached snapping it off!

The top fell away to the ground but the branch it took with it got caught up in another tree so I was only given a light shaking instead of... worse.

I managed to unclip my W.P.Strop and climb down, heart racing...

 

I learned.

Never leave a long branch as a foothold when topping out.

Get a heavier groundy or a stronger system for pulling.

That I hate skinny populars even more now!

 

Got any advice for me...

(stands back and lights the blue touch paper...)

[Jon Lad]

if it helps at all merrist wood have had one lad die there and two more lads hav had serious falls there , jack kenyon was telling us when we got there that the hse had only just allowed them to teach tree climbing again because a lad had fallen out of a tree on the course before us , he then told us to get our climbing kit s ready as we were going for a climb in the campus woods ha ha he's a great chap lol

 

I was doing my NCH there when that happened. He was on the 10 week course. He snatched the top out of a pine I believe and the stem failed below his feet, presumably due to the shock load. It made everyone who was at MW at the time take a moment to think. As we all used the same work sites and climbed the same trees, ND, NCH and 10 Weekers. James Boyd said there was no outward sign of any defect in the tree when they took it down for the H&SE to inspect it, so it could have been anyone of us.