Anchor hitch failure kills a newbie

murphy4trees · Jan 29, 2004

Anchor hitch failure kills a newbie, one of at least 18 deaths in southeastern Virginia during the clean-up after Isabel....
I met a treeman from Oklahoma... He chased Isabel with a 20 ton crane, bucket treuck , a couple of highly experienced climbers, etc...
Told me he hired a local kid that died on the job.... Just what I heard... the 18 year old kid should have been putting flyers out in locak mailboxes... but climbed a tree in the owners absence... His anchor hitch connecting the end of his climbing line to a biner and his saddle, failed.... He fell backwards from 50' and landed on his head... Died on the spot... The workman's comp from Ok. doesn't cover anyone that is from Virginia... only those from Ok that are working in Va...
The owner was about to file bankruptcy...
Sad story.... losing a young life to such a simple mistake... there is not much forgiveness from 50'... Just an $18 spliced eye would have made the difference between life and death for the climber and saved the owner a whole lot of trouble...

Lumberjack · Jan 29, 2004

That is sad, and he was a year older than me. Did he say how the knot failed? I bet that it wasn't properly TDS. A spliced eye is fine, but so is a fishermans knot. I perfer a spliced eye, but would be ok with a proper knot tied to the biner.

Sad that the owner is closing shop, and that the kid dies. Kinda like salt in wound.

Ironic, the guy was 18 years old, and number 18 to die during cleanup of Iseabel.

Carl

John Paul Sanborn · Jan 29, 2004

Why i am a big fan of newbies climbing on a fixed tail with one critical knot.

knudeNoggin · Feb 19, 2004

> Anchor hitch failure kills a newbie ...

How was the knot type determined?
(If an Anchor Hitch spills, there's a nothing left.) If someone was there to see what knot was tied, then someone was there to see that it was tied right, etc.!?

?

blackwaterguide · Feb 19, 2004

anchor hitch

This is a tragedy. My condolences to those near and dear. May the good Lord bless and keep his soul, and comfort those around him.
Anchor hitch, buntline, fishermans, they just do not fail. The knots themselves are infallible. TDS, rope, biners, etc., and soforth, must be wherein the problem occurred.
This is an inherently dangerous business. I would always be in favor of starting slowly, and staying low for a good while. All too often we make a mad rush for that almighty buck. It takes a good while to become comfortable and proficient up there.
Once again, God bless us all.

Eagle1 · Feb 19, 2004

I use an anchor tied to my rope snap all the time. Sounds like a mis-tied knot failed.
Eye splice would be another method, but in the long run Rocky is correct in saying that you have to know your knots. Anybody can snap on a biner. Trusting your own tied knots is part of the whole tree climbing expierence.

Anyway, sorry to the lost boy and his family.

TheTreeSpyder · Feb 22, 2004

An anchor knot is so named; for it was tied to the anchor of a ship.

This is the hitch that was chosen for it's strength and security to hold the lives of all on board from drifting into unknown deaths for centuries. It is formed from the stabler, stronger hitching of a roundturn, rather than single hitch; in herently i think wee will find a round turn base (or double roundturn bas that forms short Frenchy stack) to be very secure. The anchor is sweet simplicity in form itself, being jsut a roundturn, that sits on it's own tail.

That is certainly a tradegy Daniel, but as pointed out how can we be sure he had a properly TDS (i add Inspect) anchor with the proper amount of tail (4x rope diameter; cuz everybody likes a lot of tail to feel secure!)?

Many things can be held from taking nmot just a wrap/hitch on something but 2 wraps/roundturn; trapping the end of that reduced pull after the roundturn under the mainline pull of the first turn (then the subsequent one too) is pretty slick IMLHO. i think making the anchor to the line itself to form a barrel is even better (just as clove to line itself forms buntline; and girth/lark's to it's own line to form loop makes a smoother laying lobster hitch).

Condolences to the young man's family and crew too.:angel:

NeTree · Feb 22, 2004

Shameful loss of life... condolences to his family.

BUT...

Where is the PERSONAL responsibility in all of this?

If you take your life into your own hands and help yourself to doing something you're not qualified to do, why does that delegate the responsibility to someone else if you get hurt or killed?

The kid was doing something he shouldn't have been doing- and someone else has to lose their business over it?

Sure it's unfortunate that a kid with his whole life ahead of him got killed, but while people have a witch-hunt to find WHO IS RESPONSIBLE, everyone seems to overlook the OBVIOUS.

(Kinda like if some kids trespass on my property and drown in my pool because they are too intoxicated to swim, their parents sue ME because I didn't have a big enough fence?)

Now, THAT said...

I believe there's definitely gotta be more to this story. Why would the kid "help himself" to try climbing? Was he alone?

We need more facts.

treeslayer · Feb 23, 2004

Dan, I saw the newspaper stories on what sounds like the same accident, in Kingsmill. only the kid died in the hospital a day later. Oklahoma tree company and a young guy that put on the climbers equipment and went up during lunch. fell out over a failed knot.
that climber that allowed a rookie to put on his gear and play in the tree screwed up bad. the kid wanted to get off the ground and get in the tree to make more money, a 30 minute training that cost him his life.

NeTree · Feb 23, 2004

Do we know for sure whether the kid helped himself to try climbing, or whether he was "allowed" to?

knudeNoggin · Feb 27, 2004

Do we know for sure whether the kid helped himself to try climbing, or whether he was "allowed" to? [quote/]

My point in asking How do we know what knot was used? echoes this question. A failed Anchor hitch doesn't reveal itself; the report of that particular knot thus suggests that someone knew how the victim tied on (and perhaps even helped).

---knudeNoggin*

NeTree · Feb 27, 2004

Perhaps, or it could have been an assumption on someone's part. That's why I was asking for the particular.

Put the "/" before "QUOTE"..."/QUOTE" to close (in brackets).

murphy4trees · Feb 29, 2004

The anchor hitch part is just what I was told... I Am sure that if the anchor hitch was properly tied it wouldn't have failed, so I thought the cause of failure was improper tying.. Sounds like tree slayer was able to fill in a few facts... The owner said the kid was supposed to be putting out flyers and not climbing trees.

Sounds further like the owner was out doing estimates and some one on the crew let the kid go climbing...

Eric, do you have a written policy about whom is allowed to climb or train climbers on your crews??? I'd bet 10:1 that this guy didn't... So who is responsible???? Everyone involved to some degree or another IMJ....

Hopefully we can all learn from others mistakes here... I believe the company name is Tip Top tree and crane... I saw one climber that definitely knew his stuff but no helmet or hearing protection

treeslayer · Feb 29, 2004

Murph,
the fire chief in James City County is an old friend of mine, I'm going to call him monday when he's on duty and get all the details.

okietreedude1 · Feb 29, 2004

Im from Oklahoma (obviously) and am curious to know who the tree company was? If you dont want to post it to protect them, I understand. You can pmail me. I mean them no harm, just curious.

NeTree · Mar 1, 2004

Originally posted by murphy4trees

Eric, do you have a written policy about whom is allowed to climb or train climbers on your crews???

Yes.

treeslayer · Mar 1, 2004

Talked to my buddy at the fire dept. today, he said there were 2 other company employees there when the kid fell. The kingsmill police are handling the investigation. The chief of police is an aquaintance, I'll call him again tommorrow.
chief Tal said the kid was pretty f'd up, they took him to the hospital ASAP.

NeTree · Mar 1, 2004

Thanks for the definitive info.

Keep us posted.

Proarbor · May 30, 2004

Originally posted by netree
Shameful loss of life... condolences to his family.

BUT...

Where is the PERSONAL responsibility in all of this?

If you take your life into your own hands and help yourself to doing something you're not qualified to do, why does that delegate the responsibility to someone else if you get hurt or killed?

The kid was doing something he shouldn't have been doing- and someone else has to lose their business over it?

The last employee who tried this on me could"nt understand why i was so upset and why he did'nt have a job when I arrived back on site. ( He got down safely but had zero instruction on knot tying, climbing techniques or chainsaw safety in trees.) My trainee climber also got a big warning over not stopping this incident.
Sometimes you have to be mean to be kind. :angry:

a_lopa · May 30, 2004

sounds like a real pro crew you got there

Anchor hitch failure kills a newbie

Help Support Arborist Forum:

Addicted to ArboristSite

Banned

Above average climber

ArboristSite Lurker

ArboristSite Member

ArboristSite Operative

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

ArboristSite Lurker

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

ArboristSite Guru

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

Addicted to ArboristSite

ArboristSite Lurker

Overhead downunder

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!