March into Safety

[TheTreeSpyder]

'Bout a year ago now;

i stood in a deafening silence of such a quality,
that chainsaws mysteriously seemed to be reverantly quieter in;
So much so that carefull whispers could be heard over the saws.

There are monster's of darkness out there,
Who's favorite hunting ground is this,
most dangerous pro-fesion that ye have chosen.

Some of ya been here, know i speak of standing;
in the footprint/wake of disaster,
of a local tree brutha; puking and throwing himself on the ground-
After finding his newleywed lil'wife;
hanging out the wrong end of the chipper,
when he went looking for her.

A few of us gathered to close down a barely started job,
a very large removal, so the husband et al didn't have
to even consider going back to that place of horror.
Even the sky found it too much and cried that day.
i don't need to do that again, and say you don't;
nor someone standing in for you.....

Never let your guard down, there are other beasts that hunt you too.
High Voltage, chainsaws, chippers, climbing etc. allow these beasts closer.
If the peoples that come here,
don't care to carry the message forward; then whom would?

These stories and more reminders are in Injuries and Fatalities Forum ; that is set aside to keep these important lessons forward and sorted from the rest of stuff here. It is made that way so you can go there for this info, please don't take it as set aside to keep it out of your way!

-KC

 

[treeman82]

Kenny, I was just thinking about the woman down there today. I remembered that it was roughly a year ago that she had the accident. Any word on that whole story? I know that there was a lawsuit, but never heard anything after that.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Last time i saw the lil'boy she left behind; he seemed lost wandering around the house. The high ceilings meant to give the open feeling of spaciousness weren't worth a flip; seemed now to just reflect the emptiness, adding to it.

Her husband Brian i saw the other day, he has an inborne hearing deficit, so has always talked off an octave; but still from the sound that came from him, you can tell he had been gutted, and still is. Even though it seems as though the mercy of acceptance has settled in; he will never, ever be the same.

He brought up the lawsuit himself, said he is just letting the big shots take care of it; says he has to be concerned for their son, that is all he knows and this was like his 3rd job this year. It seems he couldn't stay around the house anymore and has to pay bills; he cannot lay down and crumble, he must keep going for the boy.

He also flagged out, that the design of the feed table for that model is/has been changed in height and length as some preventative measure against further tragedy.

None of your or your co-workers' relatives need the knawing burn of this stress; i guarantee it. The casualty count seems higher than 1, at ground zero.

-KC

 

[trees4life]

My heart goes out to the families of those that have lost their lives doing the work they love. I know of too many people that have had close calls, and were very, very lucky. My biggest wish is that every tree worker could come home safe at the end of the day, so that further families would not suffer as your friends have.

I think education in safety, implementation of safe practices, and enforcing safe practices, are the kindest things an employer could do for the people that work for them. I think I would take a cut in pay to work for & with a group of people, knowing that we would all be able to walk through the door at the end of the day, rather than with people that believe in cutting costs & corners at the expense of the people doing the work.

Stay safe.

 

[NeTree]

Excuse me for pointing it out, but Lewis's T-shirt leaves one with the impression of why he might have had his accident. True or not, it's the impression.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

The rest of the pic is such impact, that i personally overlook that; and also realize that like a chemo patient/migrane sufferer; his body might have been in such a point of pain and devastation; that it might be about all the relief short of being knocked out/'drunk' for the rest of his life he had left.

If that was all the poor soul had; or if such a vice seemed not to matter anymore to what was left of his life; i think we can be glad that wasn't us; and allow him that; as not the point anyway. The depth of this tragedy, just blinds me to the rest i guess.

i know that is just an observation Erik, prolly fair at that, but the big picture of this triple amputee my friend...... well that point just seems smaller!

JMO,
-KC:alien:

 

[NeTree]

Maybe, maybe not. It was my groundie who picked up on it- he wondered if it had something to do with how he got that way.

Was he a toker while he got hurt? Or now as a medicinal thing? Or maybe it's just a shirt. We don't know, and it's too late for it to matter now, isn't it?

It was just an observation.

 

[trees4life]

From what I recall, this young man was a student worker with a utility company, and I believe (please correct me if I am wrong) that the employer was charged with failing to provide training. There have been several incidents over the past number of years where students in different industries/environments were seriously injured/killed due to lack of safety training & awareness of hazards. Let's face it, many students take summer jobs in areas where they have no knowledge of safety or work practices. Employers and other workers must take the time to help these young people along and make sure they have the knowledge and equipment to stay safe.

It's one thing for person to have the knowledge and perhaps make their own decision to work unsafely, or put themselves in an unsafe position, it's another to take the decision of being safe away from someone because no one took the time to explain.

 

[NeTree]

It's a darn shame in any event.

 

[ORclimber]

I think a medical marijuana card would be justified for someone that messed up. That's legal here, sure wouldn't look down my nose at someone looking for relief from physical pain.

Those are powerful pictures.

 

[che]

more of Lewis Wheelan's story:

more of Lewis Wheelan's story in pictures

I popped Lewis Wheelan's name into google last night and came up with the above link, as well as another concerning his death. Left me kinda hollow.

 

[NeTree]

Thanks for the link.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

next month i think will be the aniversary of the death of an arborist,from my neck of the woods ,i think he was section felling /free falling a large beech .the bough he was tied into broke of leaving him on the floor with a 1 ton lump on top of him .he was in his early 30s and left young children...i beleive his death made a lot of guys in my area think a lot harder about safety ..our proffesion will all ways have its hazards,thats not going too change its the nature of the job ..but if you minimalize risk taking then your thinking safety.what tree is worth a human life.another guy in my town caught his leg in a 252 stump grinder now that could be classed as darn write silly ..but how many of us have left the wheel running when we are checking too see if we got that last bit of stump out...????????????

 

[NeTree]

Accidents are always unfortunate. However, by examining them like we do in this forum, we hopefully learn how to prevent another one.