Widow Maker

[Charlieh]

whoops sorry ment my wife brother!

[tockmal]

whoops sorry ment my wife brother!

 

 

Its ok, I've worked in Derbyshire, I understand.

[Vertical Lmit]

Cutting over his head i assume saw and limb fell down across his neck. At least quick not great sinario for an arial rescue though!!

[bill]

from what i can see, he jumps out of the way of a falling branch, thats it.hes stood in the wrong place big time.

[Leyburn Lad]

Sounds terrible, I've got pics of an ash barber chairing, will put them up soon. Thanks for sharing the story of your dad's accident. Could you put the accident report up on arbtalk?

 

Sorry for been late with this reply(about a year).

 

Hope it reads ok, I use when inducting new staff or carrying out inhouse trainingaccident2.xls

[Mr Ed]

The 4th of July 1980 is a date I don’t forget and believe me it has nothing to do with American Independence Day or my

friend Charles Fosters Birthday, that date is when my Father and the rest of the Families World changed for good.

 

The morning started off as usual, dropped off at school by my Father who then carried onto a woodland on a local estate

where they were carrying out a clear fell of hardwoods mainly consisting of Ash trees, the site itself was nothing out of

the ordinary apart from the remoteness and the fact that a considerable amount of the tree's were on a steep bank down

to a stream.

These sorts of sites were nothing out of the ordinary for Father or any of the men who worked with him, he had been in

the forestry industry for over 20yrs starting of with his brother in the sixties until he lost a leg in a winching accident in

the Lake District. My Father had taken over the Saw mill and at the time had good a business and enviable reputation of

been one of the best fallers in the area.

The day it self had started off on site no different to any other, they had started to work on the trees near to the stream

some of which leaned out and across the stream, the idea had been to fell the tree's across the stream and then winch

them back up the bank ready for extracting later in the week. Father felled the first few tree's then apparently went further

down the hill side to take a large ash tree, he went through the scenario as usual, which way it was going to fall, escape

route etc, then started to fell the tree. What occurred next is still unclear now all these years later, on starting to put the

back cut into the tree it barber chaired (tore straight up the trunk) this in turn caught him in the rib cage and launched

him into the air which in turn caught the eye of one of the other workers on site, his description of his landing still makes

me cringe now.He estimated that he went up in to the air for about 15 to 20 FT which when considering his weight was

18st the force of that tree must have been horrendous, he landed a distance away from the tree with his legs trapped up

his back.

The chap who saw the accident went to his aid, but could get no response from him, he shouted for the other guy on site

to go and get some help, this person set of over the woodland to the farm which was about 1/4 mile away to raise the

alarm and get assistance. On the arrival of the ambulance the next task was to get him out of the woodland and to the

ambulance, this was done with a tractor and trailer, the only means of getting access. While all of this is taking place the

shock is starting to take it's toll and my Father had by now started to drift in to a coma. To say that time was running out

was understatement, the nearest A&E was 30miles away, fortunately there was still an Army A&E in Catterick 10miles

away who willing to take in a civilian casualty. Had he had to go to Northalerton 30 miles away he would not of made

the journey due to the amount of internal damage.

I came out of school as usual at 3.45pm ready to catch the bus up to Gilling West and walk over to the Woodland they

were working in, one of the men from the site was waiting for me, he explained there had been an accident and not to

worry, he would run me down to the Hospital were my Mother was waiting with my younger Brother and Sister.

Walking into the waiting room there was an array of people there with my Brother and Sister, moments later my Mother

appeared with a Doctor and we were all taken of to a small room down near the Intensive Care Ward.

If you have ever been scared witless by something or someone in you life, you might just get how I felt at this moment,

the doctor explained that the injuries my Father had sustained were so severe that he was unlikely to survive the next 24

hours and that if he did the severity of the accident could mean permanent disability including brain damage.

Once this had sunk in we were given the option to go on the ward and sit with him for a while. Entering the room where he

was being treated is still as clear now as it was all those years ago, a mass of cables and monitors surrounding a body

who looked nothing like the man who had dropped me off at school that morning.

Picture the scenario a Mother with three young children and the possibility of being a widow in 24hrs. Fortunately he did

pull through although he was in and out of a coma for about 6months. On leaving hospital he no longer had the use of

his right arm due to the nerves been torn ( this never worked again), internal damage to his organs beyond full repair, he

had two punctured lungs on admittance to hospital. It took over a year to be able walk again with out the aid of sticks and

even after they went, any great distance was a challenge at times, the arm with the nerve damage was constant pain, he

would describe this many times as feeling like your arm or leg has gone to sleep when you have slept in a funny position

but 10 times more painful 24 hours a day.

After a year he recovered enough to be able to start back in business but never hands on again, the doctors had given

him an estimated 10 to 15 years life span due to the severity of the injuries, he actually managed 19 years and passed

away in 1999.

On being the oldest in the family, it was my job to arrange a large part of the funeral for my mother, the first thing to do is

contact all relatives and close friends, a task in it's self. But what really brought home the reality of that day 4th July

was the conversation with the two guys who were onsite on the day of the accident, neither would attend the funeral

because they still felt they hadn't done enough that day to help and the memories were still to painful to attend his

funeral, 20 years on it was still affecting them, well it's 29 years now and still feels like yesterday to me.

IT'S NOT JUST YOU WHO SUFFERS WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG AND IT'S NOT JUST YOU WHO DEALS WITH

THE AFTERMATH OF AN ACCIDENT YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND WORK COLLEAGUES WILL SUFFER TO

[Leyburn Lad]

:thumbup1:Cheers for putting that up Mr Ed.

 

Bloody computers beyond me at times:confused1:

[bob]

cheers for that it really does make you sit back and think

[Mr Ed]

Did you write it Leyburn Lad?

[Rich Rule]

Leyburn Lad, sorry for your loss albeit 9 years late. Horrific story and does make you think it is not just you who suffers. It is pretty close to where I grew up and where my grandparents lived and father. Where exactly was the woodland site?