co worker cut his wrist with 201T

[Youngbuck20]

yesterday one of my fellow co workers was removing a big maple with the bucket truck. he was taking the top out and while doing his back cut it came back on him so he raised both his arms to stop it from landing on him and did the chainsaw charlie across his wrist. he lowered himself low enough that another guy could control the bucket. he passed out so we called 911. 3 animal like gashes and only 15 stitches somehow. it looked pretty painful you could see his muscles. back to work today. lucky lucky lucky.

 

[D&B Mack]

Very lucky indeed. Good reminder to be safe out there.

Put this in the chainsaw thread and you will get responses like "Well, he should have been using the 200, probably kicked back because the 201T is too weak." Or, "That thing should have been ported, lucky for him it wasn't."

 

[derwoodii]

Sorry for his suffering hope he heals well and reconsiders using top handle saws...Yet by the incident description he,s dropped the saw as says both his arms up ,,,not just placed up his (let me guess) his left hand to fend off the limb,, anyhoo as you see not a fan of top handles in task where rear grip will work.

 

[Grouchy old man]

I would think the chain stopped as soon as he took his hands off the saw especially if it was still in the cut. Sounds like the the saw fell on him and the teeth hacked him up.

 

[KenJax Tree]

Why did it kick back? Did he have both hands on the saw or was he almost through his back cut and one hand was pushing the top over? I've been guilty of doing it.

 

[Grouchy old man]

The way I read the OP the top fell the wrong way. He let go of the saw and put his arms up to protect himself. I could be wrong...

 

[Youngbuck20]

The way I read the OP the top fell the wrong way. He let go of the saw and put his arms up to protect himself. I could be wrong...

The top fell the wrong way and he put both hands up to protect himself, saw in one hand and when the top came down on him it forced either his wrist into the saw or the saw into his wrist.

 

[derwoodii]

The top fell the wrong way and he put both hands up to protect himself, saw in one hand and when the top came down on him it forced either his wrist into the saw or the saw into his wrist.

Ok thank you for the clarity the situation was forced upon the chap by the circumstance, again hope he heals well and fast.

 

[imagineero]

There sure is a narrow margin for error when one handing a top handled saw and using the other hand to guide the piece.... many times your free hand is only inches away from the chain. In arboriculture training in aus you're not allowed to one hand a top handled saw, instant fail on your exams.... but the truth is that everyone does in real life. When I was working in NZ doing pruning of forestry plantations a lot of guys wore arm chaps. I never did wear them, and still dont. You've got to be very mindful of the forces in play and how the piece will swing, especially with cut/hold/throw that your left arm isnt dropped onto the saw.

In all honesty I'm surprised it doesnt happen more often considering how prevalent the practice is. There's no other efficient way to dismantle trees in many cases though.

Shaun

 

[Youngbuck20]

isnt that just it. efficiency over safety.

 

[tree MDS]

Yep. Sounds like he should have put a pull line on it. I take calculated risks like that myself. Sometimes it helps to give the top a good push/shake, before cutting, just to make sure you have enough on it.

 

[imagineero]

isnt that just it. efficiency over safety.

There is always an efficiency/safety balance, there is no such thing as absolute safety. Getting that last few percent of safety can make the job take 10 times as long. You can talk the whole 'safety has no price' routine, but who's going to pay the price? The truth is, you generally can only have as much safet as is economically viable while still getting the job done efficiently enough to make a profit. Any more safety than that and you don't have a business any more, you have a charity.

The question of when enough is enough is a never ending one, and we are mostly improved over where we have been in past. Most safety measures are only ever going to be a backup parachute to the main parachute of your skills and knowledge though. Safety has really been taken way too far in most industries as a result of the slip up of one or two guys that had accidents. In the past people shrugged it off and went 'oh well, high risk industry, he made a mistake'. People who took on high risk jobs knew what they were buying into, and took the money. Nowadays, one huy has an accident and the response is more like 'our industry needs to find a way for it to be impossible for this scenario to occur again'.

I'll take the resonsibility of accepting the consequences of my actions anyday, so long as it comes with the freedom to do what i want at any time.

 

[Youngbuck20]

I've never read a more honest no bs straight to the point post on this site than that. Your exactly right. If we took all the safety precautions they want us to and rope out every little piece, shut the saw off and finish your cut with a handsaw, like you said your business would be a charity. That being said a lot of people have lost the common sense factor as well. Those are the guys that make it a pain for the rest of us.

 

[Youngbuck20]

The bucket duck, I like that I'll keep it in mind and hopefully never have to do it. He's like 6'6 so not sure that was an option for him lol

 

[tree MDS]

The bucket duck, I like that I'll keep it in mind and hopefully never have to do it. He's like 6'6 so not sure that was an option for him lol

I was gonna say, it might help to keep the sawdust collection in the bottom of the basket, to a minimum! lol.

 

[FLtreeGuyVHTC]

Sorry to hear about your buddy and I hope he has a quick and full recovery.


He needs to learn how to do a 'quick duck' into the bucket! God knows I've done it before!


Of course there is no substitute for doing it right the first time and not needing to use defensive moves.

So what happens when a limb falls on the bucket and comes in with you and you turn into a human shiskabob

 

[imagineero]

So what happens when a limb falls on the bucket and comes in with you and you turn into a human shiskabob

Your co workers add marinade and fire up the BBQ.

 

[Youngbuck20]

Not a lot of human eating human around here. Bath salts haven't really made their debut yet.

 

[tree MDS]

Not a lot of human eating human around here. Bath salts haven't really made their debut yet.

Turns out that guy wasn't on bath salts. They only found weed in his system, so it was a rather extreme case of "reefer maddness", if anything. Scary times indeed!!

 

[Youngbuck20]

Just munchin out maaaaan haha. I heard "synthetic marijuana" whatever the hell that is. They also said they don't have a test to find bath salts yet so they didn't find any, I thought that was pretty funny.