# Chipper close call



## ORclimber (Jan 15, 2004)

A friend who runs a tree service called me from the ER today. He had been doing something else while his help was chipping. He noticed the guy limping and in pain. His hired help had stuck his foot in his chuck n duck. It was the labor ready guys second day on the job. Apparantly the guy had one foot flat on the ground and the other on the hopper trying to kick in corkscrew willow. A branch pulled his foot in and the steel toe got kicked back out. There were 4 marks on the steel where blades struck. the steel toe was bent into the guy's foot. The boot had to be cut off. The guy lucked out with black and blue toes, possibly one fractured. 

Ironically, he told me last night about a smart hard working helper who was a bit timid around the chipper. Today that kid almost lost a leg.


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## TimberMcPherson (Jan 15, 2004)

????, and ???? again. Imagine if he wasnt wearing he steel caps.....


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## Jumper (Jan 15, 2004)

Any time I had those temps working for me they did the dragging and I did the chipping. "What was he thinking!!!!!" Or was he thinking at all? Fractured bones are bad enough , lucky he did not lose his leg.


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## geofore (Jan 15, 2004)

*chipper*

What luck this guy had, without the steel toe he'd have been sucked through in a flash. You shake your head and say," what was this guy thinking?". Print out a few of the sucked through a chipper articles from this fourm and make him read them. He doesn't know how lucky he is to be alive. One mistake is all it takes to get you on this fourm as a statistic. 
Give him a few days off for the improper use of the chipper and when next you let him use the chipper get a 4' piece of 2x4 and in big letters write "this is your leg" on one side and "this is your arm" on the other, show it to him, and feed it to the chipper while he watches. He will know what you're saying about the danger of using body parts for push sticks. Shut the chipper off and warn him and the others you see them use a body part for a push stick again and they're FIRED on the spot. 
I suspect he will need that few days off to heal anyhow but don't let him think you are giving him days off to heal, make sure he knows the days off are for the bonehead move he made.


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## treeman82 (Jan 15, 2004)

I think he got the best lesson possible in why you don't stick any parts of your body past that feed table. Yes, he got some hurt toes, but he still has all 10 of them. :angel:


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## TREETX (Jan 15, 2004)

More proof that the BRAIN, not steel toes is a valuable piece of safety equipment.


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## NeTree (Jan 15, 2004)

> _Originally posted by TREETX _
> *More proof that the BRAIN, not steel toes is a valuable piece of safety equipment. *




I agree 100 percent!

I don't know about you, but I know my legs are alot softer than wood. If that machine can eat wood like it's goin' oughtta style, I'm sure my leg doesn't stand a chance.

That guy must have stuck some 4-leaf clovers up his butt before coming to work. Had that machine had feed wheels, he'd be DEAD. Good thing he had steel-toe boots!

I still do my raw chicken thru the chipper routine on the new help. Gross maybe, but it REALLY gets the point across like you wouldn't believe.

When hiring temp guys, you have to be 'specially particular to explain the hazards unique to our equipment and industry.

Glad the guy wasn't hurt more, and ya know... sometimes THOSE guys (that get hurt a bit) make the safest empolyees afterwards.


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## TheTreeSpyder (Jan 15, 2004)

Man i remeber you telling that chicken lesson before, always thought that was pretty potent!

i guess seeing a young calf taken by an open auger screw transport/feed kinda made some impression on me, or other 'open' mechanics when i was even smaller. i always visualized something trying to get me; so never offered it any oppurtunity! You see see something '...devouring to vaporize 18” solid Oak & autofeed 22’ of it in 3 secs. without revving up!', and a leg is just grease to it, likes the flavour! 

The only good thing about a situation like that (and thank God this one time; we literally see a guy stay just one toe, from being over the line; so the price of this lesson is cheaper than usual) is how many people are safer because of that incident. The energy and drive towards more safety awareness; even for the most safety aware already..... And here today, someone puts it here to have that affect, that story to tell tomorrow/next week,multiplied well outside the usual neighborhood, city etc. of effect it might more generally have. i've gotten a lot of good things from here; but prolly gotta say, that be the best! Thanx Eric and Darin!


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## topnotchtree (Jan 16, 2004)

I once watched a couple of city employees standing on the feel chute of a self feeder kicking branches in, as the truck was goin down the street!


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## murphy4trees (Jan 19, 2004)

I think its important that a new chipper operator become familiar with the safety bar and practice stoipping and reverversing the wheels repeatedly under supervision... so he gets the insticnt that if anything should go wrong, hit the bar fast!


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jan 19, 2004)

I ran crew for several years, and i cannot see letting a New Guy run the chipper alone on during his first *week*!

What was the bossman thinking, letting a semi trained individual run machinery alone! One day is familiarization, not training


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## ORclimber (Jan 19, 2004)

> _Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn _
> *I ran crew for several years, and i cannot see letting a New Guy run the chipper alone on during his first week!
> 
> What was the bossman thinking, letting a semi trained individual run machinery alone! One day is familiarization, not training *



Obviously the ball was dropped do to a false sense of security. The boss man thought his help had enough respect for the chipper that nothing like that would happen. He is a one man show and can't keep regular help busy(due to work load and family commitments). Often every working day brings new temp help. This is someone who worked for Asplundh, he's used to training new faces. He's swamped with work due to the recent storm, freaking out about how he's going to keep all his customers happy. He offered to hand me a stack of sold work, but I'm swamped too. He was planning on implementing a formal daily job briefing/ safety training last I talked to him.


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