Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

[Dale]

I am infuriated with myself, as I almost lost my life yesterday. I was cutting some Elm that recently died from Dutch Elm Disease. 3 were quite close to each other. I cut one that was just moderately entangled with the other, and as it was falling, I followed it to the ground with my eyes. 1 second later, a 10" diameter branch nearly 12 feet long came down from the other tree from 20 feet in the air, and landed 3 feet from me. It would have killed me for sure had it hit me in the head. What a TERRIBLE mistake to make.

 

[johnha]

Glad you're still here to share that story. Hopefully we will all learn from it.

 

[acer saccharum]

Glad to hear that you had a 'learning experience' and didn't get hurt.

 

[Dale]

Thanks Much. The sad part is, I'm not a novice. Been sawing for over 25 yrs. which makes me even more mad.

 

[ropensaddle]

Good to hear you did not get hit. Never stand at a stump, back away swift in a clear escape route and keep eyes out for anything! Many people meet their doom at the stump, especially loggers that are felling through thick canopy as; the standing trees always throw it back at the stump. Of course, a limb could snap and kill you getting into your truck in the mourning.

 

[corndogg]

Glad you had a learning experience. Also another reason to always wear a hardhat or better yet a comfortable helmet. You would definatelly still been injured had it hit you but the hat or helmet will reduce injury. A friend of mine fell and hit his head hard. He survived but a helmet would have made his life better today. If it's comfortable, you'll wear it more.

 

[masiman]

I am infuriated with myself, as I almost lost my life yesterday. I was cutting some Elm that recently died from Dutch Elm Disease. 3 were quite close to each other. I cut one that was just moderately entangled with the other, and as it was falling, I followed it to the ground with my eyes. 1 second later, a 10" diameter branch nearly 12 feet long came down from the other tree from 20 feet in the air, and landed 3 feet from me. It would have killed me for sure had it hit me in the head. What a TERRIBLE mistake to make.

Thanks for posting Dale. You did not say but rope mentioned it....did you stay by the stump after it started falling or did you use a preplanned escape route? Obviously, you did not check up since you were surprised when the branch hit. What do you think you should have done to better avoid the problem?

I'm not beating on you, just trying to learn from you so I can make it to 25 years of cutting.

Glad you are okay

 

[Bermie]

Thanks for posting....you have my respect for going public!

Its especially important coming from someone experienced, it serves to remind us that things WILL happen, no matter how trained, experienced or safe we are. Sometimes its an unforseen event, sometimes its a lapse of attention like you.

Lets ALL learn from this, be it a reminder or new information!
Really glad you are OK.

 

[Gologit]

I am infuriated with myself, as I almost lost my life yesterday. I was cutting some Elm that recently died from Dutch Elm Disease. 3 were quite close to each other. I cut one that was just moderately entangled with the other, and as it was falling, I followed it to the ground with my eyes. 1 second later, a 10" diameter branch nearly 12 feet long came down from the other tree from 20 feet in the air, and landed 3 feet from me. It would have killed me for sure had it hit me in the head. What a TERRIBLE mistake to make.

No...a terrible mistake would be to just shrug it off and not learn anything from it. That's why they call them "widowmakers"

Thanks for posting this.

\

 

[windthrown]

Yah, good post. I wear my brain bucket felling anything over 10 ft tall. I also wear it when wandering around under the oaks here, which have a lot of dead branches high up. I was felling some firs up in the largest oak stand here a few months ago and some limbs dropped out of the canopy on a clear, still day. Whonk! Wham! Slam! Thud! It can happen... felling or not. 100-200 pounds of wood coming straight down with a lot of time to accelerate. They were 50-100 ft away, but still... saw or no, widdowmakers are out there.

Your post brings to mind some felling that the guy on AxMen did this week. He cut and left 2 cut trees standing. One tree was leaning wrong so he left it. The next was being leaned on, or he intended to drop it as well by cutting yet a third tree to domino knock the other two down (intentially). Now, this same fellow has about 1/5 of his left hand from a cable yarding accident that cut 4 of his digits off. He runs a saw with a hook on his left arm that he made in the shop (showing it off on the show). Cutting leaning trees, and trees that have leaners on them is dangerous stuff! He just shrugged it off like it was all in a day's work.

What was the number that they gave? 1/1000 gets killed logging? Not such good odds. I wonder how many live, but sustain major injuries.

 

[joesawer]

A similar thing happened to me, but it hit me in the head.
I learned what cranial fluid tastes like that day. It was leaking out of my sinuses and into my nose and mouth.
I was sick for weeks after.
I still have a dent in my head.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Thanks for the heads up reminder, also just to add, if your felling NEAR dead trees with alot of vine about you have to be double careful as it can create wrecking ball like effect with the vine being the cable and hunks of dead tree being the ball!

Thanks mate, appreciate it.

 

[Dale]

Good replies guys. Somebody wanted to know what was learned from this stupidity. Well, I KNEW what could happen by becoming too complacent, I just stumbled into that abyss, and almost payed with my life. I'm thanking the saw God's for sparing me. That is all it was. Simply got too comfortable and complacent. Just goes to show, it only takes 1 split second, 1 poor judgement, 1 wrong decision. Luckily I have another chance.

 

[Dale]

By the way, a lid would have made "the fatality scene" a bit easier to clean up, but they would have been picking spinal column fragments off of the ground. Like I said, BIG limb and long drop.

 

[Brush Hog]

In my arborist course last week we had a safety guy from The Care of Trees and he said that rookies and veterans are the most prone to accidents. Rookies don't know enough and veterans get to relaxed from doing it so long. Glad here you care OK

 

[windthrown]

So that leaves what, dead people and people that do not work around trees as safe?

 

[Nailsbeats]

My brother took a widow maker to the head falling a tree a couple years ago. Luckily it only broke his hardhad and left him dizzy. It's crazy how that stuff seems to come out of nowhere sometimes. I bet you never felt so good to be alive and mad at the same time.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

It blows my mind how many widowmakers I can find at residential locations in a weeks time. I always remove them on principle. It is amazing how little attention some people pay their own trees.

Thanks for posting, Dale. I think that was a gift in more ways than one. It's good to be reminded from time to time just how easy things can go wrong regardless of experience. Keeps us all sharp, thanks for sharing!!

 

[Philobite]

I'm going through parts of our redwood forest with one of these just now to judiciously and safely take out particularly obvious widow-makers. I always wear a helmet, and I'm always steering clear and looking up as I'm working out there.

It's sobering to find a large redwood branch sticking up out of the the ground, broken off, and realize the force it took to drive it so far into the ground. Shudder!

 

[Treetom]

Another argument for the brain bucket.

Thanks for the reminder that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong." It's just a matter of time, like, about 25 years, give or take a few. Sharing that story helps keep us safe by reminding us that things we've done a thousand times may not go as we expect the 1001st, time.