# How about a close call/near miss thread?



## Manco (Mar 27, 2005)

What do you think about a sort of heads-up thread? To maybe help someone else work safe without having to have an accident. Ignorance is no excuse if you know what to look for.


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## clearance (Mar 27, 2005)

Good idea, its better to learn from "that coulda killed me", than a newspaper article. Our utility wants us to report "near miss" events to them, they are out of thier minds. When sh#t almost happens we talk it over among ourselves only. Like I am going to rat myself out to them so they can write me up and put a black mark on my record. I mean another, I have already put out the power when I was just an apprentice. It helps to talk things over in an informal forum such as this, the only people who have never made a mistake have never done anything.


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## a_lopa (Mar 27, 2005)

your only remembered by your stuff ups!


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## MasterBlaster (Mar 27, 2005)

I'm always cracked up when a client says "Yur good! Have you been doing it long?" It's like being a demolitions expert, or whatnot... if ya ain't good at it, yur not long for this Earth, and likewise you don't do it for any length of time.


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## Manco (Mar 29, 2005)

Recently, I cut down 30'' diameter at breast height oak tree. Climbed and removed limbs over shed, some weight off of back side, and one limb on the other side to keep from breaking some limbs out of a neighboring tree. Put a 5/8" super-braid rope in top and cut notch and back cut; tree fell just right.
From where the back cut was to where the first limb was about 15' 
In the process of bucking up trunk,about 4 or 5 just stayed wedged together between the stump and the rest of the tree and about knee-high off the ground. Now I have some round sections ready for take-off down the run-way! It was a slight slope and when they broke loose they all rolled about 12' and stopped. My 2 gal. steel gas can and gal. of bar oil were right in the line of fire. The pieces stopped before my gas and oil cans bit the dust. BUT, those few seconds of watching those pieces roll and knowing that whatever was in their path would be crushed, lets you know accident can happen anytime. A bystander looking the other way, chain-saw, vehicle, house, swimming pool, highway, or anything could have been severely damaged.


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## tinman44 (Mar 29, 2005)

doing a removal recently, my partner the one with the years experience was almost done with pine, after cutting out second to last log it hit tree next to removal tree and came back on him, knocked him off his gaffs and could have been bad had there not been a bend in the tree that stopped his fall. 2 foot heart attack. he was shook up and bruised but he was lucky. now i'm nervous this guy has been doing this for 19 years and just goes to show it can happen to anyone. side note i was on other end of pull rope and it picked me up off the ground and pulled me about 5 feet until i released the rope only to have the log land only feet away from me.


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## canguy21 (Apr 3, 2005)

I watched a scary scene unfold Friday afternoon. Two large blue spruce were being dropped at a residence across the road from our store. The feller, whose PPE consisted of a sleeveless shirt and a ball cap on backwards, limbed the tree to the top of the ladder, about ten feet. He then tied a light rope to the trunk about fifteen feet up, the other end going to the elderly homeowners van.
He cut his notch then went to the back cut. I doubt if he had cut more than the width of the bar when the tree moved. He dropped the saw and ran 90 degrees to the trees path. The tree rolled and knocked him flat on his face in front of his buddy who was watching inside the drop zone. Fortunately, he got up.
The homeowner later brought the saw to us for sharpening. It was a battered 044 with the chain hanging a quarter inch off the bar. I do not know if they were hired or just trying to help but he is lucky to be alive. Almost qualified for a Darwin.


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## coydog (Apr 4, 2005)

one of my former co-workers took a spill about 30 feet last week, don't yet know all the details except that his TIP tore out and he suffered a broken pelvis. today I had to prune some previously topped maples and work the upper canopy. These trees were stressed and had poor structure, I found an acceptable TIP and went out on a limb to do some end work, I flipped in to an upright about 4" diameter off the limb I was working and leaned out to make a handsaw cut when I heard a crack and the upright I was flipped into tore out and I took an uncontrolled swing( with the branch still attached to my flipline) into the trunk. walked away with a bruised ass. Good reminder to us all our TIPs are often the weak link of our systems,choose them wisely and don't hesitate to walk away from a job that is not safe. I'll post the details of my former co-worker on this forum when I find them out.


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## clearance (Apr 5, 2005)

Ain't a reminder to me cause I climb with spurs, when I tie in to rappel I am looking at the tie in point right in front of me. Never ever had a problem, just another reaon why spurs are better for me because I am #1, not the tree.


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## coydog (Apr 5, 2005)

okay clearance, that works for you, if I climbed like you I wouldn't have a job


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## coydog (Apr 5, 2005)

BTW, learn how to back up that chipper yet?


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## Tinwoodman (Apr 27, 2005)

*Pinned between two poplars*

I live in South Carolina now but grew up in the woods in Maine. My family heats their home with firewood, which my father cuts every year. He has never had a serious accident in nearly 30 years of tree cutting. I never really handled the chainsaw until I was 17. I found myself out of work one winter when I was 20, living with my parents, and my dad said I could cut popple (poplar, aspen) for pulp wood. They're just big weeds, anyway. So I did. I cut a nice load. But in the propcess, I was working by myself way down in the woods one day, about 1/4 mile from home or anyone else's house, and I cut a tree. It didn't go quite where I intended it to go, and hung up in another popple. So I decided to cut it, too. I did-- and got so caught up in what I was doing I totally forgot about the one hung up in it. Both were in the 12-15 inch ABL range. I came to a few minutes later with the sun setting, I was gasping for air, in an upright position pinned between the two tree trunks by my chest. The 2 trunks were stress-bent against other trees and had me pinned like chopsticks. The pressure on my chest had to have been at least half my body weight, maybe more, and I was over two hundred pounds at the time. Yelling for help was futile. The chain saw lay stalled at my feet, mercifully not touching me as I dropped it in my unconscious state. My head was sore-- evidently the first tree had dealt it a glancing blow as it fell. Sizing up my situation, I tried pushing the trunks apart. They gave a little bit. I knew it would be a couple hours before anyone came looking for me-- Dad was gone to work, Mom would stew for a n hour or so, and send out my sister to look for me-- she wouldn't know where to look in the dark in the woods-- the tracks made by the old John Deere B went all over the woods and she wouldn't know what set of tracks to follow in the snow, in the dark. So I gathered my strength, ordered a poof of adrenaline, and in one motion threw the logs apart and squeezed down. My head cleared by the skin of my ears and the two logs went smack together like a gunshot. OK, I exaggerate a little. My right ear and side of my head were skinned up pretty bad and I was pretty sore the next day, but never went to the doctor. Moral of the story-- never forget stuff. Never cut a tree holding up another tree unless you take plenty of precautions to be able to get away.


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## alanarbor (Apr 27, 2005)

clearance said:


> Good idea, its better to learn from "that coulda killed me", than a newspaper article. Our utility wants us to report "near miss" events to them, they are out of thier minds. When sh#t almost happens we talk it over among ourselves only. Like I am going to rat myself out to them so they can write me up and put a black mark on my record. I mean another, I have already put out the power when I was just an apprentice. It helps to talk things over in an informal forum such as this, the only people who have never made a mistake have never done anything.



The last sentence of that is a great truth.

Following up on that, the company I work for actually rewards the reporting of the near misses, on the basis that if they are brought out and discussed, the accidents can be avoided, because people will be aware of at risk behaviors, and be able to avoid them


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## Tree Machine (Apr 27, 2005)

Yesterday I was getting out of my truck in the usual way, get out, turn left toward the back of the truck, slam the door with my right, not really looking.

So I'm doing this as I have a thousand times before, got out, took a half step, slammed the door. This time, however the zipper on the left pocket of my chainsaw pants was unzipped. That door-catch post caught my left pocket, my hips swung counterclockwise just enough so that the slamming door missed my butt and the instant stop when I was expecting to go forward knocked my feet out from under me and I fell forward. My pants were slammed in the door and I was hanging horizontally, pasted mid-air to the door of my truck, unable to reach the door handle. This all happened in like, 2 seconds. I am so glad no one saw that.

Moral? Tree work can be dangerous, even if a tree is not involved.


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## Tinwoodman (Apr 27, 2005)

Another hung up tree close call came when I was a kid. I always enjoyed being with my dad when he cut wood. We would burn 5-7 cords of firewood every year (cold in Maine, ya know) and some years he would also cut some pulpwood or sawlogs. He was always very careful to know where I was when he was cutting, and to make me understand the dangers involved, but I would help out one way or another from the time I was five on up. One day, he cut a good-sized maple, maybe 18 inches or so, and it hung up in some other trees. I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. I liked hung-up trees, because I could sit on them and climb up by straddling the trunk and pushing myself up and forward with my hands. I told my dad I was going to try to bring the tree down by climbing up in it and shaking it. I figured it would be fun to "ride" the tree down to the ground. The top, or as far up as I got, was about 20-25 feet off the ground. I shook the tree and it couldn't get it to budge. Dad decided he'd jump up and down on the lower part of the trunk to get it to fall. Well, it did. And it might have been fun, except as it fell, it rolled sideways and guess who fell 15-20 feet onto his back with a tree falling down on top of him? Yep, me. Thank God the branches shielded the trunk from slamming into me. I landed in a relatively soft place, and picked myself up and crawled out from under the tree with bumps, bruises and scrapes. Dad asked if I was all right, and as soon as I could fill my lungs with air, I said yes. He said we better not tell Mom about it. I never have.


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## Tinwoodman (Apr 27, 2005)

Tree Machine, I had an incident similar to yours while working on a farm. I was driving a 1970 era Minneapolis Moline tractor (company's out of business, I'm not trying to sell the tractor, ok?) and it had a cab. The tractor had definitely seen better days. the door to the cab was missing. I parked the tractor (this was during mud season, and you southerners won't know what I'm talking about) and went to step off. As I went to descend the steps out of the cab, the back of my (oops, no brand-names) heavy canvas work jacket snagged on the latch-post for the door that was no longer there. It threw me off my guard and balance, and my foot, which had been expecting to contact a step below it, swung in empty space, throwing me even more off balance. I flailed my arms, trying to grab something, but there was nothing substantial to grab. I was suspended there by my national brand-name coat for aproximately three seconds, then it ripped. (mind you, I was about 250 pounds at the time). I had just enough time to think about it to reach for the step with my foot, and use that little catch to turn myself around in mid-air so I landed on my back in the mud rather than face-first. Picked myself up, looked to see if anyone had seen it. Muddy coat and pants for the rest of the day.


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## Old Monkey (Apr 27, 2005)

Tree Machine said:


> Yesterday I was getting out of my truck in the usual way, get out, turn left toward the back of the truck, slam the door with my right, not really looking.
> 
> So I'm doing this as I have a thousand times before, got out, took a half step, slammed the door. This time, however the zipper on the left pocket of my chainsaw pants was unzipped. That door-catch post caught my left pocket, my hips swung counterclockwise just enough so that the slamming door missed my butt and the instant stop when I was expecting to go forward knocked my feet out from under me and I fell forward. My pants were slammed in the door and I was hanging horizontally, pasted mid-air to the door of my truck, unable to reach the door handle. This all happened in like, 2 seconds. I am so glad no one saw that.
> 
> ...


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## Tree Machine (Apr 28, 2005)

I'm so glad you're alive. That was probably the scariest moment of your life, mebbe your Dad's, too. Yeeks!


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## Tinwoodman (Apr 28, 2005)

Yeah. One of for sure. Had quite a few close ones, though, not just in the woods. One day something will reach up and grab me and send me 'cross the river. But I'll land on my feet when I get there-- I'm prepared for eternity, know where I'm going when the last log hits the saw. Death is something you have to be prepared for. When my time comes I'll go.


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## MasterBlaster (Apr 29, 2005)

Not me... I'm staying!


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## spacemule (Apr 29, 2005)

MasterBlaster said:


> Not me... I'm staying!


  I don't know, I'm thinking about going myself when my time comes.


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## Old Monkey (Apr 30, 2005)

MasterBlaster said:


> Not me... I'm staying!



Master Blaster evil zombie tree wrecker! I can see it now. 
"He reeks of corpses and mumbles 'brains' all the time but he's still the best darn wrecker in these parts!"


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## Tinwoodman (Apr 30, 2005)

How long do you think you have? 80, 90 years? You going to be 100? We all have to go some time. I walked through a graveyard recently and saw many gravestones marking the graves of people born in the 1980's. It is appointed unto [each] man once to die, and after this the judgment. . . .


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## MasterBlaster (Apr 30, 2005)

Brains, dood! Brains!!!


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## Tree Machine (May 1, 2005)

Tinwoodman said:


> and after this the judgment. . . .


Judgemental people really irk me.


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## jason j ladue (May 1, 2005)

i'm wit butch. never say die, baby!


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## Tinwoodman (May 2, 2005)

Well, it's something we all have to face. Dying, I mean. I don't look forward to the process, but the end result will be great. Eternity in Heaven. I deserve to go to the other place, more than most people, maybe, but God forgave me. I'm at peace. I try not to be proud, because it isn't about that. A person who accepts God's forgiveness has a real near-miss experience-- a near-miss from eternity in the flames. I am a sinner, and I'm very ashamed of many things I've done. I'm just so glad God gave me a chance to repent. He gives that chance to all people. Now I don't fear death.


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## MasterBlaster (May 2, 2005)

Well, good for you.


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## NWCS (May 28, 2005)

sure learned a safety lesson on an alder clearing job today.. clearing a bunch of 2-8" alders today with my 044 with 32" bar.. caught the bar on some brush and hit the throttle.. darn near sending that bar into my leg. had the wind catch another tree and send it right for me, sure a good thing i allways clear an alternate escape path just for times like that.. and another incident while limbing a tree, caught the bar tip on a large trunk and the chain wanted a kiss.. what a day.. 88 degrees and pissed off as hell.. this is the worst cutting job ive ever done.. i HATE it! if i had to collect a quarter for every time i was cussing.. would have filled a 5 gallon bucket today. anger and chainsaws are a BAD combo! im now really in the market for some HD saw chaps, steel toe boots and one of those fancy helmets with the face shield.

you may be asking.. just WTF was i using an 044 with a 32" bar on a job like this.. its dead carb season for me. the 036 pro i would normally use is down and my 032AV is in need of a carb tune.


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## Tree Machine (May 28, 2005)

I would highly recommend a camelbak, really, seriously. If you choose a face-shield helmet, get one with ear-protective radio headsets. The music will help with the anger. You most importantly, however, need to get your saws running properly. 

Then switch from your regular bar oil to vegetable oil for bar lubrication. This will provide you a number of benefits starting immediately.

Lastly, Summer weight chainsaw pants are favored by many over chaps.

We gotta get a handle on the anger thing. Tree work should be as much joy and adventure as you can create. Anger mucks that up.


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## NWCS (May 28, 2005)

on most cutting jobs i do actually have fun.. but this is 90% or more blackberry/nettle clearing.. not much actual tree cutting.. thought i would give a neighbor a deal and agreed to work for $10 an hour before i looked the situation over.. DOH!


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