minderaser66
ArboristSite Lurker
back in 97 i was taking down an oak tree in someones back yard. it was like 1130 and i wanted to be down for lunch. the tree was sort of close to the house so i was butt hitching the stem down in good sized chunks.
anyway i figured 1 more good sized piece and we could drop the stalk. the piece was about 8ft long and around3 ft across. i knew it was gonna be heavy but the guy on the rope was letting them run to the ground and i told him to do the same with this one. i put a tag line in it so the guys could pull it over, rigged it all up and started cutting. i told the guys on the tag line to pull easy and to stop when it began to lean their way. here comes the ????ty part.... the peice goes over, the guy on the lowering line let it run about 6 ft then stopped it. it slammed the stalk so hard that it knocked one of my spikes out of the tree. i spun around with 1 spike still in the wood and broke my leg right at the knee joint."upper tibial plateau fracture". 2 days in the hospital, 2 surgeries, 2 big lags holding my leg bone together,half of the miniscus removed from my knee joint and a badly torn calf muscle.
out of work for 7 months and way into debt.
i dont blame the accident on anyone but myself. i should have not taken such a big chunk of wood. i was rushing to finish and let my ego take over.
so nowadays i try to be as safe as i can. i just want some of the younger guys to read this and think before doing something stupid like i did. no job is worth getting hurt for. and if your boss is one of those "hurry up, lets go!" kind of guys then maybe its time to look for a better tree co. to work for.
this is a very dangerous job and theres no reason to try to rush or let yourself be rushed into working faster.
if this helps out 1 person than i'm glad i wrote it.
later all
anyway i figured 1 more good sized piece and we could drop the stalk. the piece was about 8ft long and around3 ft across. i knew it was gonna be heavy but the guy on the rope was letting them run to the ground and i told him to do the same with this one. i put a tag line in it so the guys could pull it over, rigged it all up and started cutting. i told the guys on the tag line to pull easy and to stop when it began to lean their way. here comes the ????ty part.... the peice goes over, the guy on the lowering line let it run about 6 ft then stopped it. it slammed the stalk so hard that it knocked one of my spikes out of the tree. i spun around with 1 spike still in the wood and broke my leg right at the knee joint."upper tibial plateau fracture". 2 days in the hospital, 2 surgeries, 2 big lags holding my leg bone together,half of the miniscus removed from my knee joint and a badly torn calf muscle.
out of work for 7 months and way into debt.
i dont blame the accident on anyone but myself. i should have not taken such a big chunk of wood. i was rushing to finish and let my ego take over.
so nowadays i try to be as safe as i can. i just want some of the younger guys to read this and think before doing something stupid like i did. no job is worth getting hurt for. and if your boss is one of those "hurry up, lets go!" kind of guys then maybe its time to look for a better tree co. to work for.
this is a very dangerous job and theres no reason to try to rush or let yourself be rushed into working faster.
if this helps out 1 person than i'm glad i wrote it.
later all
