What You Should Do If You Get Hurt in the Woods When Alone

[Gologit]

Same thing here...on private ground anyway. The log bridges are getting rare now. We took some out completely because of liabilty concerns from hunters and tourists. They were still fairly sound but narrow and with the 4" side rails you mentioned there wasn't much room for error.
I see a lot of old railroad flat cars still in use. They seem to hold up pretty well.
Bridge approaches were usually more of a problem than the bridges themselves. Especially after a wet winter with high runoffs.

 

[northmanlogging]

yup, dirt and a few rocks don't mean much to a swollen creek that resembles a river...

 

[madhatte]

One of the drainages on DNR land west of Oly washes out every couple of years. The last two have been cement and steel and two lanes wide. The current one is three seasons old. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

[BeatCJ]

Here's an article I know of: http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20140403/NEWS/404030310/0/

A friend of mine was a Lieutenant with a fire department near Hillsboro, OR (he's a retired chief now, so a while ago) and had it happen to him. I couldn't find a report or article, I think it was before the Internet was invented.

A quick Google search found these:
2014 Warfield, KY http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-pro...y-fire-truck-flips-in-bridge-collapse-2-hurt/
2011 Santa Clara area http://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/news/215-news-briefs/25302-J23751

 

[Gologit]

That's good information. Thanks.

 

[BeatCJ]

In my area, we have a few private bridges. About half of the owners chose to have them load rated when we sent them a letter saying we would not cross them. All of those turned out to be safe. We put up signs that conform to the federal standard for signs, so now everybody, UPS, concrete truck drivers, whoever knows if the bridge is safe to cross. There are a couple of bridges that we can't cross, one because the deck is rotting and we would likely drop a wheel through it with about 2/3 of our trucks. We also have a bridge on a county road we can't cross with several of our trucks. You can't tell by looking, and I know that people drive across them overweight all the time. I would hate to be in the rig that finally causes the failure.

 

[2dogs]

I just signed the entire family up for helicopter membership through CalSTAR. The membership has agreements with several other helos throughout the western US. The membership was only $50.00 for the four of us. Consider it!

 

[2dogs]

I found out today a friend of mine was hit by a widow maker a month ago. He survived but his days in the woods are over. He took a limb on his shoulder pad, which according to the doctor, saved his life. He ended up with a broken collar bone, four broken ribs, and a shattered scapula. Cal Fire refused to drive across the bridge the log trucks had been using, fortunately the ambulance saw no problem doing so. Before the job started the company identified locations where there was cell phone service and landing zones and both were used. It took 30 minutes for the ambulance to reach him (he was working right along a road) and then maybe another 30 minutes to get to the LZ. It will be a very long recovery.

I heard an update today. Steve is looking at surgery fairly soon. I guess he is a real mess.

 

[Fishmax2]

well, in my truck I carry a well stocked first aid kit like a jobsite has, plus clotting powder since I am on blood thinners. I always carry my h&k usp compact with me on my side. I havent been wearing a hard hat, might start, always wear hearing protection and glasses with side shields. Just recently bought a set of chaps, but haven't "tested" them yet or my pants before. I am always felling alone, but always have a cell phone, and someone always knows where I am, and when I should be home. If I don't call, they come a looking.

 

[northmanlogging]

So you have yer pistol in case you meet a tweeker in the woods, but no hard hat in case something falls and hits you?

While not taking away the pistol, your far more likely to get killed by falling debris than a tweeker.

(As a side note, my .357 goes with me literally everywhere, but it stays in the crummy while I'm at work, unless I'm in a particularly crummy neighborhood then its in my pocket)

 

[Kodiakmac]

Well, I always thought that if I got hurt in a logging related accident it would be way in the bush. But it can happen pretty close to home.

On April 1st last year I did some skidding and bucking till about 4:30 pm and parked the skidder beside our garage. I went out at 6 pm to throw a tarp over the skidder because I had just heard the weather forecast and it predicted rain and freezing rain - I try to keep water off my old bush buggy. I was dressed in sneakers, jeans and a T-shirt; it was just around the freezing point and I was only going to be outside for 2 minutes.

I pulled the tarp up and over the skidder. The parking spot was completely ice-covered, so before I stepped down off the skidder, I spied a frozen rut in the ice I could put my right foot in so that it wouldn't slide when I stepped down. To make a long story short, I stepped down, putting my right foot into that tire-lug rut, and at the same time started to reach for the tarp straps hanging on the side of the garage. My left foot slipped off the skidder rung, and all my weight torqued onto my right leg - which couldn't slip or slide because my foot was in that rut. Snap, bang...down I went. My right leg broke in four places below my knee and the tibia came out through the side of my leg about three inches above my ankle.

I was in a bit of a bind. I didn't have my cell phone, my wife wasn't getting home till 9 or 9:30, the temperature was going to fall to 20 F, I was underdressed, and with the protruding bone I knew there was a darned good chance of shock setting in. So I had a rather miserable 150 foot crawl across the yard and up 10 steps into the house. Never knew I could swear in so many languages. To top it all off, at one point when I was crawling I looked around and my wonder-dog German Shepherd was helping out by licking my blood on the ice and snow. I guess that's what they mean when they talk about adding insult to injury.

In any event, never too old to learn some things, eh?

First of all, after talking to my surgeon, other patients, and people in the physio-therapist clinic, it became pretty apparent that the great majority of people injure themselves doing the simple little things they have done a thousand times before - one time out of ten thousand something extra enters the mix and crap happens. And I think we get pretty complacent about our "routine" movements. Let's put it this way: I'm getting on and off my skidder now with a bit less speed and a lot more thought and I'm paying more attention when I'm doing simple things like going up and down stairs.

Second lesson. I take my cell phone with me now even if I step out to throw seeds in the bird feeder.

Number three: I dress for the occasion.

And number four.....I am teaching my wife to tarp my skidder! (okay, I'm just kidding on that one )) )

 

[madhatte]

Grim story, good lesson. Thank you.

 

[northmanlogging]

Wait yer dog didn't run to the neighbors for help, fire that guy!

Crawling with broke stuff sucks, crawling through snow sucks more...

 

[Kodiakmac]

Wait yer dog didn't run to the neighbors for help, fire that guy!

Crawling with broke stuff sucks, crawling through snow sucks more...

Lesson number 5: don't get a German Shepherd from Quebec - must be the government-run daycare system ruining their instincts!

 

[northmanlogging]

Oh, so he only speaks Frenchish, and drinks the blood of innocents?

 

[Philip Wheelock]

...I take my cell phone with me now even if I step out to throw seeds in the bird feeder...

A couple of towns over (Wrentham), an older guy cutting a fair ways into his property without a cell phone got his legs pinned by a tree. A couple of nuns were walking in the adjacent property and heard his faint calls for help. Taken to the hospital with leg injuries and hypothermia. Close call.

 

[Gypo Logger]

I told my first lie, Butch asked me if I'd had any subsequent bush rash. So... i need to come clean.
A springpole took off my nose, however, I was miles away from the nurses station. So I grafted it back on with some duct tape. Having attached what was left of my nose and with blood in my eyes, I put my nose on upside down, so when it rains, i rarely venture outside without a hardhat for fear I might drown.

 

[056kid]

so that's where all your brains went. They fell right out of your nose hole.

 

[2dogs]

I renewed my CalStar membership today. $50.00 for the entire family for a year.

 

[madhatte]

What is CalStar, and is there a WAStar equivalent, and do I need it?