There goes my safety record

[John Paul Sanborn]

It took me a while to figure out how I would present this debacle, and whether I would post anything at all. It was more then embarrassing or humbling; it made me doubt whether i wanted to keep on going.

The short story is that Dave (treeslayer) had me down to help with storm work, and I darn near killed him in a struck-by incident. As many of you will recall, I am a big advocate of command and response, Dave on the other-hand has been been on the other side of the argument when it has been purely academic.

We were on a box elder removal, and I was cleaning off a stub-log low on the tree. looking at it afterwards, even though my relief cut and top cut matched, a small tab of wood peeled out and threw the log back about five feet. He had stepped back into the DZ to finish a cut and had his back to me. The log caught him in the back of the helmet, braking the Pacific Kevlar in two places. The ground guys say it flipped him over in a full somersault.

I hear them calling his name, telling him to lay still. I loo down and he is bleeding from head, ears and mouth. and his eyes are rolling back in his head.

I wanted to puke, cry, run away....

I bail out of the tree and try to help keep him still, but he was out cold for a few minutes.

Long story short, he shook it off and refused to go with the EMT's; though we made him sit the rest of the day out as we finished the tree off. (oh and he took all the sympathy he could garner from the neighborhood ladies).

Dave takes responsibility for being dumb enough be working in the DZ while the climber has his saw on, and "turning my back on the job". But I cannot get around the cold fact that my actions nearly caused the death of a friend I has treated me more then fair for nearly ten years. It was a preventable incident, I could have;
* put a rope on it, but everyone else was busy. It was faster to drop the chunk.
* cut the ears so there was no chance of a tear. Didn't even consider it.
* stop before I finish the cut to check the full DZ. But I had eyes on the junior members of the crew, I don't have to look out for DAVE!

It still chokes me up, I do not know what I would have done if he'd been seriously hurt...or God Forbid...

Blame it on the heat, the late day, what ever. I violated a personal rule that I have preached on way too many times here. Production is not worth shortcuts in safety, it does not matter how good you are, who much experience you have. Things can happen.

BTW, the bleeding from the head and ears was from the headband and harness when it was nocked off his head, and he bit the inside of his mouth.

I am still saying little prayers of thanksgiving.

 

[Scottscape]

This goes to show that even some of the best tree men can get hurt and hurt others and accidents still do happen no matter what. Thank god Dave is still around and you for taking responsibility for your mistakes. Where are you guys by the way? Georgia, Alabama?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Dave is in IL and VA and I work mostly in SE WI these days.

 

[tree MDS]

I would just be thankful for the fact that it wasn't much worse, and everybody lived to learn from it. Thanks for sharing the experience like that, shows alot of character and gives others something to think about as well! I wouldn't beat yourself up too bad, it's over now..

 

[mattfr12]

Thanks for posting it. you shouldnt be embarrased to post something like this #### happens to everyone sooner or later some just worse than others. i would think of you posting it makes me pay a little more attention when i go to work on monday. and everyone else here. posting stuff like this could very well help prevent injuries.

 

[capecodtree]

easier said than done

about fifteen years ago I was doing an oak tree take down with my two sons. I was chunking down the butt log as my boys were dragging brush. My youngest chose the shortest drag to the chipper putting him in the drop zone. I let a piece of wood go and to my horror there was my son, head down, hard hat on right beneath the chunk. I yelled, screamed, but to late. The chunk hit the ground within inches of him, the force of impact knocking him over. Even a partial hit probably would have crippled him, to this day I don't talk about it and can barely think of it. The possibility of crippling, killing your own son is overwhelming especially knowing that it was all preventable.
I learned my lesson, we now have safety meetings, discuss each job and formulate a game plan with everyone involved, and I never even let so much as a twig fly unless I know where everybody is.
So I your feel your pain, embarrassment and questioning of professional ability. Getting over it and moving on is much easier said than done. Most of the people that will tell you this have never almost killed a son or good friend.
All that I can tell you is learn from the experience, never forget it, and know your friend forgives you. PM me if you want to talk, jim

 

[flushcut]

A spooky day for sure thank God for helmets. I think one thing all crews, no mater how long or short you have been working together, keep your eyes to the sky and expect the unexpected. Thanks for posting JPS.

 

[046]

WOW.... thank goodness he had on a hardhat. glad he was not hurt worst.

 

[Jumper]

It took me a while to figure out how I would present this debacle, and whether I would post anything at all. It was more then embarrassing or humbling; it made me doubt whether i wanted to keep on going.

The short story is that Dave (treeslayer) had me down to help with storm work, and I darn near killed him in a struck-by incident. As many of you will recall, I am a big advocate of command and response, Dave on the otherhand has been known to say things like "if you get hit by the climber, it's your own fault", "it's the groundguys responsibility to stay out of the way."

We were on a box elder removal, and I was cleaning off a stub-log low on the tree. looking at it afterwards, even though my relief cut and top cut matched, a small tab of wood peeled out and threw the log back about five feet. He had stepped back into the DZ to finish a cut and had his back to me. The log caught him in the back of the helmet, braking the Pacific Kevlar in two places. The ground guys say it flipped him over in a full somersault.

I hear them calling his name, telling him to lay still. I loo down and he is bleeding from head, ears and mouth. and his eyes are rolling back in his head.

I wanted to puke, cry, run away....

I bail out of the tree and try to help keep him still, but he was out cold for a few minutes.

Long story short, he shook it off and refused to go with the EMT's; though we made him sit the rest of the day out as we finished the tree off. (oh and he took all the sympathy he could garner from the neighborhood ladies).

Dave takes responsibility for being dumb enough be working in the DZ while the climber has his saw on, and "turning my back on the job". But I cannot get around the cold fact that my actions nearly caused the death of a friend I has treated me more then fair for nearly ten years. It was a preventable incident, I could have;
* put a rope on it, but everyone else was busy. It was faster to drop the chunk.
* cut the ears so there was no chance of a tear. Didn't even consider it.
* stop before I finish the cut to check the full DZ. But I had eyes on the junior members of the crew, I don't have to look out for DAVE!

It still chokes me up, I do not know what I would have done if he'd been seriously hurt...or God Forbid...

Blame it on the heat, the late day, what ever. I violated a personal rule that I have preached on way too many times here. Production is not worth shortcuts in safety, it does not matter how good you are, who much experience you have. Things can happen.

BTW, the bleeding from the head and ears was from the headband and harness when it was nocked off his head, and he bit the inside of his mouth.

I am still saying little prayers of thanksgiving.

I am thankful I had a ANSI Type II / CSA Type 2 hardhat on the day I was hit in the front of my head by a 6" diameter piece of frozen sugar maple that swung out of a tree while I was pulling on another hanger......a few inches lower and it would have got me in the face.....as it was sent me flying into a snowbank.

And more recently was hit in the hard hat this past week by someone who was cutting HVAC access holes on the second floor of a house I was helping to build for Habitat, chunk of engineered floorboard the size of a floor register, which at a minimum would have hurt but for the PPE.

Yes it is a pain in the arse especially in the summer but I would not be caught without it on at work where use is warranted or mandated.

 

[brookpederson]

Thanks for posting it. you shouldnt be embarrased to post something like this #### happens to everyone sooner or later some just worse than others. i would think of you posting it makes me pay a little more attention when i go to work on monday. and everyone else here. posting stuff like this could very well help prevent injuries.

I'll second that!! Thanks for the post. It takes real balls to admit a mistake, and even bigger ones to write about it.

 

[Philbert]

The log caught him in the back of the helmet, braking the Pacific Kevlar in two places.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Lot of good lessons including the fact that he was wearing a helmet.

Glad he's OK. Bleeding from the ears, he should have gone to the ER - classic symptom of a closed head injury that EMTs can't fully diagnose.

Philbert

 

[flushcut]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Lot of good lessons including the fact that he was wearing a helmet.

Glad he's OK. Bleeding from the ears, he should have gone to the ER - classic symptom of a closed head injury that EMTs can't fully diagnose.

Philbert

It was from under the ear lobe not the ear canal it was from the chin strap.

 

[TreeClimber57]

Good post; and thanks for posting.

Exactly the reason I just ordered 3 Vanquish throat microphones. I hate working up tree, in bucket or on ground (with others up tree or bucket) when you can not be in total communication. Communication does not prevent accidents; it does however ensure that all are in total understanding of what is going on (saws running or not).

http://www.sherrilltree.com/Professional-Gear/Miscellaneous/Fire-Fox-Vanquish-Throat-Mic


Can not get too safe..

But thankfully sounds like all is going to be good.

 

[treemandan]

Yeah, that sucks. You missed ! Its OK, you'll get him next time.

 

[treemandan]

It sounds like The Slayer took the beating he asked for. How are you doing Dave? Ain't to much else to say but glad you got a next time. Ok, lets see how bad it is, send the pics.

 

[deevo]

Holy crappers, glad Dave's going to be okay! I always take a double check as well no matter if we are roping stuff down or bombing it.....thanks for sharing

 

[jefflovstrom]

Good post JP.
Jeff
Lucky Dave has a hard head.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Good post JP.
Jeff
Lucky Dave has a hard head.

Yeah to break a pacific kevlar lid on it, it must be!

 

[sgreanbeans]

I am so glad everybody is ok. JPS, kinda know how it feels, Pops walked below me after I checked the LZ, did the all clear thing and started cutting, right as it lets go,about 8"dia, 8' long, I see him walking under me, it missed him by 6", thought I was gunna hurl, took me a bit of time to calm down, wheels a spinning in my head and my stomach was doing flip flops, I finished the job, came down, checked that he was good, then chewed his old butt out!

@ 57- Let me know how that comm gear works, been think about that meself, how much mula?

 

[TreeClimber57]

@ 57- Let me know how that comm gear works, been think about that meself, how much mula?

Just over $100 Cdn ($119.92) by the time shipping is included. Already had radios; so only headsets were needed. If you need radios, then any radio from Walmart, Costco, etc should work ok. (best if they have VOX for the climber though - not sure if they all do but mine do - I would only run climbers or bucket operator in VOX mode though - keep chatter climber hears to only what is intended to go their way). In my mind communication is absoutely essential. Then the climber can not only visually ensure people are out of the way when dropping wood, but can communicate with them. As important however is if there is a problem, something the climber or bucket operator does not see or is no aware of, the ground crew can ensure that the message is communicated and clearly understood.