# Injury to family members from work operations



## Taxed Mind (Jun 18, 2009)

Sounds so simple but it is something that should be reinforced frequently to family members; keep away from all work operations!

While we "workers" can go to the forest and work safely away from others, occasionally work can be done in the confines of the home yard area. Obviosuly we would ensure all children are well away from operations simply because of the damaging effect of the noise, however free roaming adult family members should be made to understand the dangers too.

One particular case springs to mind where my father-in-law and I were cutting felled trees into shorter sections for a building operation. The work was being done on a slight slope which meant that the end of the log could be cut cleanly and easily as it was off the ground. He was standing on the path which came up from a lake through the forest and was cutting the end. I was doing somthing at the other end, don't recall what, maybe getting the next log ready. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my mother-in-law walking up "our" path to the house (one of two she could have taken) in her swim suit and bare feet. Approaching from the blind side of her husband she was extremely lucky that as the end of the log dropped and rolled slightly it neither crushed her foot, broke her leg or rolled over her. It only gave a glancing blow to the leg and a very big fright.

She knew we were working there. She chose the path that was blocked rather than the other similar open and unused path. The path that we were working on was completley blocked and could not actually be passed, but yet she still tried to actually brush past an operator using a chain saw cutting a slightly suspended log, with nothing on but a swim suit.

Personally I could not imagine anything so stupid as even the noise and sawdust would have meant that I would have waited until the cut was finished, never mind the active revolving chain. Yet this was a mature adult with experience in forestry lifestyle and yet she was too stupid to think ahead.

While we might educate children and other bystanders about the dangers, the fact is those who should know better should be periodically reminded of the dangers too.

Although, I must say it still cracks me up when I remember the bollocking she got from her husband for doing it!

TM


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## bullbuck (Jun 19, 2009)

similiar story,i was falling trees within a unit early one morning large trees for the most part,but this was a small tree by comparison and so i put my standard third of the way through humboldt face in it and throttled into my backcut,i was gonna just throttle that baby down,all of the information i need to know reads from the backcut,wether it lifts etc.the back of my mind told me to look one more time,good thing i did there were two women in direct line of that fall and were not aware of it at all,the tree had enough wood left for me to stop my backcut...i always check my fall line one last time now...:jawdrop:


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