Accident Thread - Stuff Gone WRONG!

I put my chipper right under the tree, sometimes. NO ropes on the ground. Definitely have rigged whole sections, rig after rig, right onto the chipper tray. Aerial friction, and a rope where both ends don't reach the ground, winner-winner chicken dinner.


Sometimes just cut and chuck, skip the drag. NO ropes on the ground.


No plastic on my chipper. A piece of plywood leaned against the chipper covers the control panel and clutch lever, if I'm dropping on that side.
 
Mick! said:
A close thing.

Felled this poplar stem, left the truck where it was as it was in the shade and the dog was in it.

Figured I had plenty of room to put it on the other stem on the ground to avoid too much lawn damage.

What I hadn’t accounted for is the bark shearing off at the impact point and the whole stem sliding almost frictionlessly forward to stop inches from the truck.
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di some eucs with my ground man up in the trees...he cuts n chucks a log,bounces on the ground on other pieces previoulsy dropped,up in the air,down 20cms next to open car door:D no pics avaliable sorry
 
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This thread has value and I probably will check it from time to time. For years on TB I checked a similar thread daily ... I always thought it helped me to stay aware. Eventually I quit doing it as I figure I'm well aware of the dangers and don't need bad juju in my head. My two favorites were the the large Tree in Atlanta that failed wholesale , onto the poor bastard putting in a price as he was sizing up the work. Killed him , Neva even bid the job. Other was the Tree Co. working roadside with full designated work area defined with Cones etc. , Some poor Schmo walking by with apparent mental problems decides to jump into the Feed Chute ! (My guess is Girlfriend problem) ... They shut it down and he survived.
 
MasterBlaster said:
Gotta link to that?
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... Ha , I'm a Luddite , plus it's years ago. I think the Chippercide attempt might have been Minn. Incident that tore me off the thread every day was fatal in Conn. State job , Climber in an Oak pushed a chunk off the stem into the hole , which wasn't clear at the time. Struck and killed the Groundworker instantly ! . Geez , we talked about it all Summer , if I EVER kilt someone I would Neva climb again.
 
Sean posted the link.

I watched my ropeman almost kill someone... 3 more feet and there woulda been a death. I couldn't frigging believe it.
 
Mick! said:
A close thing.

Felled this poplar stem, left the truck where it was as it was in the shade and the dog was in it.

Figured I had plenty of room to put it on the other stem on the ground to avoid too much lawn damage.

What I hadn’t accounted for is the bark shearing off at the impact point and the whole stem sliding almost frictionlessly forward to stop inches from the truck.
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I witnessed similar last winter. I had dismantled a very large silver birch bordering a railway line. The guy I was working for decided to tell the stem. I said shall I move the tracked chipper? First tr6. It was about 3 metres away. He said it will be fine, just fold up the hopper.

The hinge broke as the tree was guided over, his the solid ice on the ground, bounced and lurched about 3.5 metres forward. Smash clean into the hopper right where the electrics are for the feed control and stop bar.

The chipper still worked but didn’t look too smart.
 
I know the guy that tipped the bucket truck in devon. Went to HS with him .. He forgot to put the outriggers down... think it was a case of getting distracted... Glad mine has sensors even though they screw up once in a while.
 
Wow, that is insane. The sensors can be a bit of pita when you are trying to set up where an outrigger contacts high ground, but they are a life saver imo. A number of times they have done their job for me.

And on my previous ALC truck sans sensors, I once went up more than 1/2 and swung to the side before felt unusual movement and looked down and saw that they weren't down :\:
 
Routine procedures, done uninterrupted, or started again, save lives.




Any more, my foot doesn't want to leave the brake pedal until the parking brake is set, truck in first gear if manual. Bad habits, you die hard.

During a storm, I was flying around on a crane taking a tree off a house. My friend, the general contractor was off bidding more work. A groundie, who had never been trained or allowed to move a truck, moved a truck so someone could get out of their driveway. Didn't put it in gear, and the parking brake, one way or another, was not enough. The truck full of chips and BC1250 on the back started to creep down the steep hill, just beyond the very top toward an occupied house at the bottom. Had the groundie not noticed and run around and been able to push the brake, it would have leveled the house.

Yet some people don't understand why there are procedures, and not everyone gets to make independent decisions about things on a worksite. Some people 'just want to help' like that guy that was almost responsible for massive destruction, and possibly death.

Especially during storm work, buildings on fire, and other emergency, high pressure, high consequence situations, training, procedures, and solid decision-making are life-savers.



The firefighter trainee that worked for me for a bit, until he finished his FF training and moved back to Seattle, said that they were training, performing a Left-Hand Sweep (or something like that, where you NEVER take your Left hand off the wall). Trainee #2 took his hand off, and got lost quickly in the black-out conditions. Their air tank alarms were going off (or whatever), and they were about to have to start breathing the "safe for training" artificial smoke. Yikes.
 
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  • #46
Why is the truck wiggling???

Hahaha.... That's one thing I've never had to ask. Cuz I've never used anything with Outriggers. Had to be freaky.

Unexpected movement can be a bitch. I was once on a high step ladder which was on top of a sheet of plywood which was on top of the pews of a church. It was the only way we had at the time to reach the chandeliers to change light bulbs. Me being young agile and probably dumb ended up being the one going up the ladder to change the freaking bulbs.

The system was pretty stable so I couldn't understand what was wrong but as I touched the chandelier it was like I was fixing to fall.. That's when I realized that the chandelier had moved slightly very slightly and that unexpected movement really played with my head.
 
SeanKroll said:
I just stay the F away from close calls, altogether, after enough times of guys doing dumshit.
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Too many people with the "it'll be ok" attitude taking risks all the time. If I ever own a tree co, my TOP priority will be minimizing risk around things I don't want risk. No brushing gutters or lines, or doing anything else that puts property at any higher than minimum risk. You get a way with it 9/10 or 99/100, but money could have been saved the one time things do go wrong.
 
...balanced with a measured dose of scaring stuff, just no touchy.

My one gutter incident was $300. A small maple branch, aerodynamically butt-down tagged it a little. A little was too much.

My friend used to call brushing roofs and lines giving it the "HI 5". Strong rock climber, 5.8 tree climber.
 
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