# costly mistake



## minderaser66 (Jan 19, 2007)

back in 97 i was taking down an oak tree in someones back yard. it was like 1130 and i wanted to be down for lunch. the tree was sort of close to the house so i was butt hitching the stem down in good sized chunks.
anyway i figured 1 more good sized piece and we could drop the stalk. the piece was about 8ft long and around3 ft across. i knew it was gonna be heavy but the guy on the rope was letting them run to the ground and i told him to do the same with this one. i put a tag line in it so the guys could pull it over, rigged it all up and started cutting. i told the guys on the tag line to pull easy and to stop when it began to lean their way. here comes the ????ty part.... the peice goes over, the guy on the lowering line let it run about 6 ft then stopped it. it slammed the stalk so hard that it knocked one of my spikes out of the tree. i spun around with 1 spike still in the wood and broke my leg right at the knee joint."upper tibial plateau fracture". 2 days in the hospital, 2 surgeries, 2 big lags holding my leg bone together,half of the miniscus removed from my knee joint and a badly torn calf muscle.
out of work for 7 months and way into debt.
i dont blame the accident on anyone but myself. i should have not taken such a big chunk of wood. i was rushing to finish and let my ego take over.
so nowadays i try to be as safe as i can. i just want some of the younger guys to read this and think before doing something stupid like i did. no job is worth getting hurt for. and if your boss is one of those "hurry up, lets go!" kind of guys then maybe its time to look for a better tree co. to work for.
this is a very dangerous job and theres no reason to try to rush or let yourself be rushed into working faster.
if this helps out 1 person than i'm glad i wrote it.
later all


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## mga (Jan 19, 2007)

damn...ouch!!


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## Manco (Jan 19, 2007)

8ft. long, 3ft. across ? you were in a hurry .. that thing must have weighed a lot. I'm curious, if the groundman was letting the pieces "run" before that one, how did he stop it half-way down. 
Another thing about being in a hurry, sometimes groundmen or homeowner will try to rush you. There are many "armchair-arborists" out there:hmm3grin2orange: 
I personally try to avoid rigging pieces that big. I've got a new 3/4" 200ft bull just in case though.


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## Bobs PSI (Jan 24, 2007)

I totally agree with you minderaser66 about being rushed is a very dangerous thing, thanks for the reminder. I have noticed rushing a job has caused me to have a few close calls.

My customers often don't understand why I take the long road sort of speak. But I have not had any accidents doing tree work yet. I hope to keep it that way.


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## lync (Jan 24, 2007)

*No watches no cell phones*

I hate to be rushed, I don't wear a watch, and the cell phone stays in the truck, I don't want to know what time it is, my crew works at a productive safe pace. if we don't finish today the tree will probably be there tomorrow. Thanks for bringing up the subject, too many people rush and that when accidents are caused.

Corey


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## Eagle1 (Jan 28, 2007)

Stalk? Stem??


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