Joe Newton

I bet those slender wrists make it look massive in the hand

I know you won't enjoy giving your hard earned to the Arb Association, Alex, but I think you'd enjoy reading the Technical Guides. There's a lot of insight into industry best practice (you can pick and choose the bits you agree with) and I've found a few surprisingly pragmatic parts.

I didn't read the link, but you might be right. On reflection the D shaped and pear shaped crabs position the load along the spine. The ovals are primarily for aligned orientation.

I don't think anyone's being harsh on the lad. I've done the daft hero stuff before when I had something to prove. Got away with it so far too. After a while I came to realise that getting away with it is great until you don't. Plenty of hero's in graveyards. These days I give myself a little pat on the back for walking away/reorganising poorly thought out/dangerous jobs.

Why is it obvious to assume that? Given the terrible work methods chosen, is it too much of a stretch to imagine that exuberence took over from practical, risk averse thinking?

Well it's pretty much vital if you ever want to learn... I'd love to know how you reached that conclusion having not seen the video. "Would a MEWP have been safer?" is a plutonic question. Can you be sure that the machine (base/outriggers & operatives/basket) will be completely clear of falling material/the main trunk when it goes? It MIGHT be safer, but it's not the SAFEST means. It's the first point of the WAHR.

You really don't like to be wrong, do you?

No, you said the first thing HSE will ask is why a MEWP wasn't used. They'd be asking why any work at height was chosen as the best method long before they got to the specifics of WaH.

They're designed for systems configured in a specific alignment, like hitch climbers or zigzags etc. They orient better and keep the majority of the load along the spine of the carabiner.

As I see it, there were a multitude of poor decisions made on that job. I'm guessing a keen but inexperienced climber thought he could safely take on a dangerous job like that, wether for the multiple cameras filming or not. Either way somebody still allowed that to happen. As a few have said, by far the safest way of dealing with that scenario is to winch it back from the floor. Services can be dropped, fences can be repaired. That lad will probably carry those injuries with him for life. I had to stop a pretty much identicle scenario from happening a couple of years back. I met another team on site after getting the call and saw a young climber looking to throw into a 90' oak with a similar sized ash hung up in it. I did ask him what would happen when he severed the wedged ash limb and the rest of the tree came down past him. He hadn't really thought that far 🙄 Quick phone call to the office and the lane was closed for the night and lads were sent back the next morning with a big winch. Sever at the rootball and rag back into the woodland.

What makes you think a tracked mewp would be the safest way to deal with a hung up tree? It's still gotta go somewhere when it's released and you don't want the mewp anywhere near that stem when it goes.

I'm curious, at what point did you pop out for a pint of milk?

Worked for Jack the Ripper too

There's no point mate, it's like trying to explain something to a brick wall.

I'd imagine because they're more versatile than a standard stick boom