# municipal arborist fatality: dead snag kickback



## murphy4trees (Jan 27, 2009)

I heard from an old associate that one of his co-workers was killed in July. Sad story of course and one that I hope we all can learn from. 

I had a chance today to speak to the person that was working on the job at the time of the death. 

They were working overtime, clearing small dead trees along a walking trail in a wild area. The tree was a tall dead tulip tree, that had been dead so long there were no small branches left, nothing under 4". The man that died was the foreman and was running the saw and calling the shots. He had the option of setting a pull line with the big shot, but opted against the idea. 

He decided to fall the tree into the adjacent woods where there appeared to be an opening in the forrest canopy. He was a highly experienced and well respected as an arborist. The tree was so tall and stright that it was hard to judge if there was any lean. He cut the notch and started the backcut, and tried to push the tree by hand from behind with one hand as he continued cutting with the other, but couldn't as the tree sat back on the saw. So he called over the skid loader to push it.

The skid operator was the one that told me the story. 

The skid loader pushed it as the faller continued cutting. The tree moved maybe 15º, then hubg up overhead. The skid operator pulled back to get a better look up and saw that is was hung up. here's where the story gets a little confused. The operator went back and pushed again, but I wasn't clear if the faller continued cutting at the time. I got the impression he didn't. In any case the tree eventually broke free and as it fell it kicked back a large limb... maybe 6' long and 65 lbs. from maybe 60' in the air. The skid operator never actually saw the accident but thought the faller must have seen the limb coming and was probnably running away, becasue he was 10-15' from the base of the tree when he was struck. 

He was not wearing a hard hat, which probably cost him his life. He had a large dent in the rear side of his skull, from which blood spurted powerfully for a few seconds then just stopped. When the bleeding stopped like that, his co-worker knew he was dead. 

The man who told the story said this was just another simple tree, notch and drop. 

Things just went bad and there was no forgiveness. The victim was the father of two, 18 & 22 years old. 

My other associate, who wasn't working at the time told me that the deceased "knew what he was doing" and also took what he called " a lot of chances". He would tend to try to drop trees from the ground without setting ropes, or reducing the top. That of course is just one man's opinion and we all have our own strengths and weeknesses, experinece and comfort levels with different risks.

One thing is certain though! If this man had been wearing a hard hat, his chances of survival would have been much greater. And if he had been wearing a really good hard hat, he would probably have been telling me the story himself. 

This is a very sad story. I grive the loss of the tree brother and present this in the hopes that we all might learn from it and maybe his death can help to save another life out there somehow.


----------



## pdqdl (Jan 31, 2009)

I tried to push some large trees over with my skid steer once. I'll never do it again.

The reach is higher than the wheel-base is long and they loose pushing ability against the trunk if you raise the bucket up and push very high up on the tree. If the tree sets back, the machine is trapped under the trunk and can't overcome the load. This story doesn't relate whether the skid steer failed to send the tree over properly, so this comment may not actually have any bearing on the sad story told above.

For those of you that are thinking of using a skid steer to push a tree over: it's not the best way to get the job done. Try something else first, they are not safe to push trees with.


----------



## Rickytree (Feb 28, 2009)

Always sad to hear how a accident claims a life. Accidents can be avoided by knowing your equipment and the mixture of caution and commonsense.


----------



## tomtrees58 (Feb 28, 2009)

are you the grim reaper:hmm3grin2orange: thats was posted months a go tom trees


----------

