Safety
You know what's funny about safety? NOTHIN'!!
I feel for,not only you,but the family of the victim.Unfortunately,in our business,a person cannot be 100% safe 100% of the time.We don't take chances,we take calculated risks.I advise not only you,but everyone reading this,to get each climber a referee's whistle and use it as a safety device.Trust me,you can hear one over a saw and chipper.I have been in the tree care industry for almost 30 yrs,and have always promoted awareness on the jobsite.The best thing we can learn from an accident,is how to avoid the same thing from happening to the next guy.Just this past Nov a year ago,a fellow arborist went through his own chipper.Perhaps you heard about it.It was just a few miles South of my hometown,Ft. Collins,CO in Loveland.The guy had well over 40 yrs exp,and yet made a fatal mistake and got chewed up by his own chipper.The odds? 1 in 200,000.The freaky part is that I bid on the same job.So you never know.Don't beat yourself up over it.And the "what ifs,how come and why mes?" will continue to haunt you until you decide that you did the best you could.