# another inevitable ladder/chainsaw accident



## chuckwood (Oct 29, 2015)

This just appeared in our hometown paper today. There is a very popular local columnist here named Steve Wildsmith who writes numerous articles about the local entertainment scene and has a regular column. Well, he climbed up a ladder, chainsaw in hand, to do some tree trimming and busted himself up good, cracked pelvis and broke a bone in his arm........ 

http://www.thedailytimes.com/column...cle_42783794-97e3-597a-83af-42ad9140605d.html


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## ANewSawyer (Oct 29, 2015)

Chuckwood, you get that paper on your newstands where you are?

Anyway, that guys is lucky to be alive. What if he had landed on the saw or vise versa?


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## chuckwood (Oct 29, 2015)

ANewSawyer said:


> Chuckwood, you get that paper on your newstands where you are?
> 
> Anyway, that guys is lucky to be alive. What if he had landed on the saw or vise versa?



Yeah, it's on our newstands. I check out the online version sometimes. I once almost had to use force to stop a close relative from doing tree trimming via ladder. Amateurs usually always cut the limb in one stroke from the top down, and the result is predictable. The limb swings down on the remaining bottom hinge and the ladder gets whacked out from under you. 

Yeah, I thought about that. A 12 foot fall/body slam onto a chainsaw would really hurt.


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## ANewSawyer (Oct 29, 2015)

I didn't know there was an online version til today. Nice to meet another East Tennesseean!

I have a couple of trees to remove and I plan to either piece them down with a pole saw, or notch and fall.


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## chuckwood (Oct 30, 2015)

ANewSawyer said:


> I didn't know there was an online version til today. Nice to meet another East Tennesseean!
> 
> I have a couple of trees to remove and I plan to either piece them down with a pole saw, or notch and fall.



Ditto about East TN. 

I've got a pole saw and I feel that it's made some of my tree work a lot safer. This past winter, I had a big hackberry tree come down in an ice storm, and I had to remove it or stop mowing in the area. Problem was it was a bad leaner, with all the big branches just on one side, and it came down slow so the trunk was propped up in the air around 14 feet at the highest point. I spent some time thinking and studying and carefully took it all apart initially with a pole saw. If anything went wrong it felt good to know I had a ten foot head start on something big moving suddenly in my direction.


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## CrufflerJJ (Nov 3, 2015)

Before turning into an ICU nurse, I was an engineer for 22 years, and ran as a paramedic on my local fire dept for 19 of those 22 years. My "best" story involving Larry, Moe, and Curly tree service and a ladder goes something like this:

One of the guys was climbing a ladder leaning up against a tree, while carrying his saw (sorry, I wasn't "into" saws at the time, and failed to note the make, model, bar length, and chain type  ). Somewhere between ground level and "up there", he lost his footing on the ladder rungs. He slipped off the rung, and one of his legs went down between 2 of the rungs as his body was on the way down. His body rotated backwards, his thigh ended up between two rungs, and SNAP went his femur (thigh bone) mid-shaft. He ended up on the ground, broken femur, in bigtime pain.

Gravity is not always your friend.


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## ANewSawyer (Nov 3, 2015)

That stirs a memory of a story for me. When I was a child, the next door neighbor told my dad a story about a guy who climbed a ladder with a saw. There was some kind of slip up with the saw and if my memory serves me correctly, the guy on the ladder fell off. Somehow, the guy came into contact with the saw as he was falling. When he hit the ground he was half the man he used to me. I don't remember if he was split horizontally or vertically. I may not have know, as I was very young when I heard this story. No wonder I have a healthy respect for chainsaws!


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## chuckwood (Nov 3, 2015)

ANewSawyer said:


> That stirs a memory of a story for me. When I was a child, the next door neighbor told my dad a story about a guy who climbed a ladder with a saw. There was some kind of slip up with the saw and if my memory serves me correctly, the guy on the ladder fell off. Somehow, the guy came into contact with the saw as he was falling. When he hit the ground he was half the man he used to me. I don't remember if he was split horizontally or vertically. I may not have know, as I was very young when I heard this story. No wonder I have a healthy respect for chainsaws!



What might have happened to this poor fellow is that when he started falling, he reflexively made a grabbing or clutching motion with his hands and clamped down on the throttle trigger. When you are falling things happen too fast for thinking and reflexes take over. I always try to be conscious of my trigger finger while walking around with a running saw, try to keep the finger away from the trigger until it's time to cut.


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## Griff93 (Nov 4, 2015)

We had another tree company in town have a ladder/chainsaw injury recently. The owner instructed one of the helpers to climb up this ladder and cut off some limbs. No harness or tie in of any sort. The guy fell off the ladder and landed on a running saw. He got very lucky for only having to have about 30 stitches.


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