# Man Dies Cutting Trees



## grizzly2 (Jun 26, 2009)

This happened in the Allentown, Pennsylvania area. I hear and read these things all the time, but when it's close to home, it really makes you look up. My sympathy goes to the family.

Houston Man Dies Cutting Trees for Power Line
The Morning Call 
10:09 AM EDT, June 25, 2009 
A contractor killed while clearing trees on a PPL power line in a remote area of Lehigh County yesterday was from Houston, Texas.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim identified him this morning as 30-year-old Samuel Saucedo Yanez Sr.

Yanez was among a crew clearing trees for a PPL power line in a heavily wooded area of Washington Township along Ranch Road around 2 p.m. when the accident happened.

State police at Bethlehem said he was in the top of the tree cutting branches when the tree splintered in an unexpected direction. He fell to the ground, and the tree landed on top of him.



Emergency dispatches requesting a medical helicopter indicated he was pinned and unconscious, then the helicopter was canceled and the coroner was dispatched to the scene.

The coroner's office is conducting an autopsy this morning.

-- Reporting by Tracy Jordan, The Morning Call


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## Bigus Termitius (Jun 28, 2009)

That is sad.

A Coroner named Grim? Slightly amusing.

The particulars sound strange though.


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## outofmytree (Jun 28, 2009)

I feel for this guys team and family.

For a few years I have been watching tree professionals on youtube and this makes me think of Graeme Mcmahons method of removing high risk trees when climbing. He ratchet straps the trunk, often in multiple places, before putting the saw in. We use this technique ourselves now for trees prone to splitting under stress. 

Its part of the human condition that it often takes an accident to make us safer.


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## GreenManEnvy (Jul 1, 2009)

Yeah, this hits close to home...

We drove by one of the crews PPL has out for the roadside work just a week or so before this happened... 

I checked for other articles on this, and most have even less information than the Morning Call's piece on it (which was just a blurb in their "Police Blotter" section from what I can tell).


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