killer snag from worksafe BC

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murphy4trees

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This illustrates what IMO is a good and important distinction to make between falling in the woods and falling in the backyard... ie.. its a lot more dangerous to fall in the woods.. you just don't see snags like this in the suburbs... that's just one of many differences...

IMO one of the big mistakes in the tree care industry is the blind adoption of falling techniques and procedures from logging... loggers have great falling skills. But they have far different needs, access to equipment and safety concerns than arborists.. we need to adapt their techniques to fit our situations...

my comments on the video:
If the recreation is accurate, he thought he was far enough away from danger , but he clearly wasn't. the answer might not be in looking at the institutional practices as much as teaching a safe distance from that snag would be height x 1.1
Seems like he could have escaped a little further... in sketchy situations why turn around and watch what happens... the "joy" of watching a tree hit the ground isn't worth the risk.. turn around go and keep going until you HEAR the fall... and don't be shy about dropping the saw too... practice dropping the saw so you do it automatically in a hairy situation.. RIP and the rest of us stay safe...
 
When falling in the woods, you are often busy looking for thrown material and falling limbs that may take a long time to final free themselves from the tree, and start falling. When you are dealing with limbs coming from 80' (let's say, arbitrarily), they have time to turn and come down like a javelin. Watching for material coming from all around, and shifting logs/ debris on the ground, coupled with thick brush, and the height of the trees, frequently makes it too difficult to clear out 150', cross country.

Sh*& be dangerous. I dealt with this a lot in my job for the State. Often it was cut the snags, leave all the green. When the tree commits, try to hide behind something, and keep a look upward. We had two guys falling together.

I've had to side-step javelins, and been grazed once or twice.

Trying to run can also cause dangerous falls, and not be able to watch for side-stepping.

The guy in my position before me got laid out, seizures, and LifeFlight by a top that clobbered him as he ran. Would have killed a smaller-necked guy. This guy that got laid out was a Beast.

My boss told me he was running one time, aiming for a place behind his spotter, and just watched as the spotters eyes got big, hoping my boss would outrun the thing. He did.
 
Seems like hazard trees like that'd warrant a spotter with a horn at the very least. Seems like I remember such a reg in the CDF licensed timber operator test?

Piss tanks n air horns....

Jomo
 
West Marine make cheap, refillable with (included?) pump, air horns. WAAAY louder than a whistle.

After aforementioned javelin dodging, we bought some.
 
I wonder what he was watching that he didn't see that slab coming. Assuming it all went like the video said.
 
Probably got hung up on watching if his domino falling worked out right.

That is one of the hardest things to beat into my apprentices, that once the tree falls you can't change anything, so stop watching it and concentrate on watching out for falling branches, logs sent airborne
etc.
 
The biggest mistake the faller made was leaving the first tree cut and left standing.
That right there would be an automatic 3 days off with no pay at the company who I fell for.
Has been proven over and over again in logging history........in time your luck will run out.
 
HolmenTree said:
The biggest mistake the faller made was leaving the first tree cut and left standing.
That right there would be an automatic 3 days off with no pay at the company who I fell for.
Has been proven over and over again in logging history........in time your luck will run out.
Click to expand...

I got that same feeling catching fat trunkwood with a Hobb's n block for weeks on end. Like it was simply a matter of time until an unread n unseen fault below ground stamps your ticket for yu!

Much over 3-4 foot dia trunkwood catching demands bull lines n blocks over one inch capacity IME.

The thought of quartering them and catching the quarters using drilled lag bolts is an idea worth testing.

Seems like I remember the X-Man Drier, doing something similar with lags?

Jomo
 
I understand the risk with dominoe felling and have done it myself a couple of times. The one thing I didn't get from this video was why the hazard tree was left out of the felling cuts. Was it to unstable to notch? I'm sure that this accident could've been avoided but I don't know what a timber feller could have done differently besides get outta dodge.
 
That's precisely what spotters with air horns are for though.

The feller was obviously unaware that a huge hanger was falling over him and about to ring his bell.

Simply looking up and moving a few feet to avoid being struck's very doable, if you're warned by a blaring horn to look up?

Jomo
 
The way I was trained was all hazard dead snags or chicots as we call them, have to be dealt with first before felling nearby trees is carried on.
Either their cut down or if small enough have the skidder push them over. In this case the real hazard was the hung up broken widow maker on the dead cedar and he should have felled either of the 2 farther trees onto the widow maker to get it down. Then go to the dead snag and fell it so it's out of the way.
 
The first green tree was limbed locked into the snag, how was he going to get it down without equipment assistance or having to work in close proximity to the widow maker above?

In theory the overall approach he chose seems a good choice, except for unfortunately remaining too close to danger. I've had a top from a codominant shoot back like a rocket after brushing against another tree next to it when on the way down, man things can sure get you without maximum caution. :\: I wonder what the average number of close calls are for a faller long time working in the woods?
 
woodworkingboy said:
The first green tree was limbed locked into the snag, how was he going to get it down without equipment assistance or having to work in close proximity to the widow maker above?

In theory the overall approach he chose seems a good choice, except for unfortunately remaining too close to danger.
Click to expand...
Limbed locked or not just the vibration and movement 80 ft up could have sent that broken widow maker onto him. He left 2 trees notched and back cutted then left standing to fall any time .Not a good choice
Falling by himself in British Columbia qualified him as a certified faller...he just made a short cut with that poor choice of domino falling ......especially trying to navigate an escape route in that terrain.
With his skill he could have felled a distant tree anywhere in the perimeter of that widow maker snag and cleared the hazard.
 
That was my point as well, working close to the snag was not an option. Falling a tree to clear the snag, I also think would have been a better choice, but I can't see where the video clearly reveals that to have been an option. That information isn't given. You would have to have been there to clearly second guess what other choices he had, otherwise it's assuming a more ideal scenario without really knowing. It seems that all there is to clearly go on, is what was stated in the vid.
 
Falling trees into uncut snags can create even more hazardous situations as well. Imo sawing up the snag and then pushing it may have been a better choice.
 
Work Place investigation definitely would have looked into the managments role into this. The faller did bring this hazard up and normally a blasting crew would have taken care of it.
Foreman should have ribboned the area off and had the faller cut elsewhere on the block until it was taken care of.
 
The guy screwed up.
When you do that in the woods you get hurt or worse.
Simple as that.

I think I'd rather be killed by a piece of a snag than having someone walk behind me evey day with an air horn.
 
What you talkin bout Holmes, it was a flagged hazard tree brought to his sup's attention, who shoulda done his friggin job and supervised the friggin felling with an air horn in case something unexpected and dangerous happened.

Watch the vid again and tell me I'm wrong?

Jomo
 
HolmenTree said:
Work Place investigation definitely would have looked into the managments role into this. The faller did bring this hazard up and normally a blasting crew would have taken care of it.
Foreman should have ribboned the area off and had the faller cut elsewhere on the block until it was taken care of.
Click to expand...
Yeah, any debilitating injury or death gets investigated.
No doubt blasting would be ideal. Wish someone would teach me about that...
 
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