Haunting Lessons that still take breath away

[theTreeSpyder]

Still haunting me;
Local crew of 3 brothers; 1/untied thrown out of bucket while rigging off it.
.
i, found myself standing there few months later closing a job at end of day;
With 2 brothers from neighboring job,
1 brother telling me how he watched his brother on fully extended bucket 60' arm
rushing to get done on under quoted 3 day job,
rigging thru pulley off the bucket he was in(which they did a lot);
He cut the large limb, when line took hit of fresh cut timber,
The 2/1 snatched hard down on bucket;
until line itself broke,
recoil flung the one brother upwards out of the bucket/wasn't tied in...
.
My ears where whistling shrilly as i listened to this man talk about watching his brother:
Being flung upwards, then streaking downward quickly,
Landing 20' from them,
head first,
eyes popping out,
body squishing as it liquefied when hitting ground,
until carcass devastation stopped at pelvis / like small throat chipper does.
.
Didn't seem like good time to scold,
or teach about ground control running rope as force relief.
.
Whatever you ride, ride it safely;
you are playing with power, just not always electrical!

 

[cory]

It's hard to sympathize, except with his emotional pain.

When you do stuff repeatedly that that shows insanely poor judgement, it's not if but when.

 

[theTreeSpyder]

2003, local tree guy, wife, others working job after electrical lines cleared by city
plywood on fancy lawn for less truck damage.
.
Guy, goes to see how wife is doing on chipping brush city left.
squeezes past box truck and chipper into clearing, chipper running, no wife.
Doesn't see wife anywhere.
.
Turns around to squeeze back out past chipper/truck.
.
Has to figure out the red drool out the wrong side of the chipper;
was the country girl he married 8months ago...
.

.
i didn't know a human could make the wailing sounds that man made during the funeral;
as he shook all over and clutched the 6 year old son of hers he had taken on too.
.
The sound still in my ears, still cuts rite thru me..

 

[Levi]

Holy hell, some brutal stories there.

 

[Altissimus]

Yep

 

[pantheraba]

Second is worst to me. Awful for all...even those of us that never knew them.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I can't believe all the years I worked w/o PPE. I'm a lucky bastard.

 

[cory]

No doubt some measure of luck, mostly skill and awareness I would suspect. Besides, you always wore a hardhat, no?

 

[Limbrat]

Still haunting me; Local crew of 3 brothers; 1/untied thrown out of bucket while rigging off it.

I've got a friend and former coworker who was slingshotted out of the bucket and lived. Broke him up pretty bad but he made an almost complete recovery. Was working with the same guy years later, he was free climbing a 35' pole, got to the top, trying to belt off, cut out and hit the ground so fast it was unreal. He survived that one with minor injuries.

The lady and the chipper is one of the most heart breaking I've heard. I can't imagine living with that.

 

[Chris E]

Definitely heartbreaking stuff. The correlation between underbidding and incidents is so strong in tree work, big part of the reason I resent those who try to beat down prices.

 

[Bodean]

Wow. The recent maybe a year ago or less story of a 18 year old kid, first day on the job going through the chipper really gets me.


I heard of a dad sending up his 16 year old kid in FLA up a tree to cut something to see his kid fall out of the tree and die.

Wes's story is a haunting one too.

It's wicked out there.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm glad I got out halfway healthy.

Now, watch a Pokemon Go fool crash headon into me...

 

[CoreyYLTG]

I have unfortunately seen some nasty stuff. I try to push safety but what we do is brutal at it's core. We work in an environment where you can deck yourself out in PPE, do everything right, and get ripped in half before lunch. Not long ago and not far from me an 18 year old kid was working with his dad grinding stumps. As I understand he walked around to see what he had left and fell into the cutter wheel. Dead right then and there with dad none the wiser 20 feet away. About 4 months ago a friend and fellow climber cut himself off a crane ball with a 660 and fell close to 50 feet. Came away from it with little more than a broken hand.

Keep your head on a swivel and stay safe out there guys.

 

[theTreeSpyder]

Not so much tree lesson, 1 for the kids..
.
Guy in wheelchair + bag at work, wasn't always that way;
We're having lunch 1 day;
all the sudden he starts telling me about it..
.
Since they got their licenses they'd always go running cars idiot fast on old country roads, him and his best friend;
wet one night , lost control, slammed into tree.
.
Woke up laying there waiting for help , best friend not responding, as rain was leaking in.
.
Wreck took his legs etc. and killed his best friend.
i guess it happens all the time;
lot's different having someone you know tell it; seeing how they struggle and used to be whole!
i told him he should visit high school classrooms.

 

[MasterBlaster]

People can be stupid, that's for sure!

 

[Grendel]

It seems like palm trees and big iron cause a lot of the carnage. . .

 

[FireFighterZero]

Buckle up and put down your damn phone.

I f'ing hate cutting people out of cars. I dont much like the smell of blood anymore.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I never have...

 

[Chris E]

Grendel do you mean palms when dudes are trapped under the dead fronds??

There was pretty full on car crash story in our papers a little while ago, 3 very close friends traveling on a remote rural road. The crash kills 2 of them and the driver then kills himself not being able to face the reality of what has happened, young guys in their 20s with no seat belts on

 

[flushcut]

There was a horrible car crash by me not to long ago a family of five and a truck driver. Mom blew the stop sign and was t-boned by a loaded grain truck one survived, a little girl, but she is really messed up and will probably be a vegetable the rest of her life. Sad.
No drugs, alcohol, or cell phone involved.

 

[theTreeSpyder]

Always know how lucky we are;
to be able to 'Touch Trees'; really some of the most magnificent creatures on the planet;
and to be healthy and skilled enough to do so floating on the end of a rope like a spaceman.
What 'landlubbers' / non-climbers, even on your own crew are missing; to learn of life this way.
.

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.
And what just 5 minutes of that which is your daily 8 might mean to someone else!

 

[Grendel]

Grendel do you mean palms when dudes are trapped under the dead fronds??

Yeah, that's so gnarly.

 

[CoreyYLTG]

Mark my words, I'm going to make a youtube video on stubs tomorrow. I have the perfect spruce lined up.

 

[MasterBlaster]

NO STUBS!

 

[CoreyYLTG]

Nah, lets gaff out and let a gaff out find a brand new way to push our shit in. Maybe that stub will stop us balls first?