# Typical safety snafu



## Bermie (Aug 3, 2007)

I was driving down the road on Wednesday, and got to a traffic snarl, there was a truck loading branches and logs outside a local attraction.
As I know everyone there I stopped to see what was up.
A large old Poinciana had failed completely at the roots, and fell across two lanes of traffic. No one was hit or hurt thank God! By the time I got there they had cut the canopy back to the fence and most of the work was done.
I jumped out anyway to help cut up some longer branches and large stuff as all they had was a wild thing and a handsaw!
Litany of safety issues:

No cones or traffic control, a passing bus hit the tree when it was on the ground and tore out another tree next to it...
No PPE at all...
One guy cutting, one guy holding, both within one foot of each other. Even AFTER someone got cut!

One guy wounded....he had been holding a log for the other guy to cut, saw jumped, loading changed, he got the top of his hand cut. He had been to the ER and back, stiched and bandaged, started working again and bust his stiches, blood dripping through all the bandages...I wrapped him up again and off he went back to the ER!

Just goes to show the value of an emergency plan, this could have been after a storm too, trees, branches down, one nasty saw on site and no trained operators or PPE. I reckon I will be getting some work out of this!

They were 'lucky' the tree went into the road, the other direction was onto the snack bar! It failed without warning at 8:30 am. I had a look at it and the entire centre of the tree was rotten, it's probably 2 1/2 to 3' dia. with about 3-4" residual wall. Over time there had been a change of grade and a concrete paver patio installed right up to the trunk. I'm going back on Monday to watch the cleanup of the main trunk (Parks Dept tree unit is doing the work) and get them to section the bits at the base and root zone to see what was going on inside.

They have another tree on the other side of the snack bar, and wanted to have it assessed. I took out my rubber hammer and had a bang all around, no obvious changes in sound, BUT it has some old stress cracks from storms, has the patio within 18" of the flare on one side, evidence of old trenching for two 4" electric conduits 4' from the flare on the other side, some swelling at the base beneath a 'compost pocket' with a palm growing in it and heavy long branch directly over the snack bar. I told them they should close or move the snack bar until they had a complete and thorough assessment done, root excavation, coring. as the target risk is so high.

In case you are wondering why it won't get cleared up till Monday...we have a four day holiday here for Emancipation day and Somers day, two days of cricket, Somerset vs St. George's...EVERYTHING is shut, closed, turned off, go watch cricket, go out on your boat, lay off, beach it, relax, just NO WORK!


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## clearance (Aug 3, 2007)

So you straigtened them out then? Why didn't they call, right person for the job and all that.


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## Bermie (Aug 4, 2007)

If you mean right when the tree went down, they had to get it moved ASAP as it was blocking the main road from the east end to the city at morning rush hour, so, they jumped right in and started cutting. 
With the traffic backup it would have taken me an hour and a half to get there at least. A Parks maintenance truck went by and and stopped to help cut, at least they are trained!


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