I definitely don't consider myself a safety Nazi, and I'm pretty sure no one that knows me or worked around me would say so either. I just have a huge problem with people doing things that could easily become a serious injury or fatality over and over again. I've stopped people working in an unsafe manner before, because i cared enough to do so. An 18" chipper is absolutely no joke, and must be shown the respect it commands. A rope going in that could easily pull someone in without even dropping rpms. The winch could rip off its mounting, smashing someone in the head, not to mention the explosion of that going through. There are a million terrible scenarios that could result from that happening, and just about all of them could result in someone being killed.
If you run a super small outfit where you drag stuff by hand and shove it in the back of a truck, you can use unskilled labor. In my opinion, when you run more and more equipment, you are asking for a higher skill set to work safely. When you are running a crane, an 18" chipper, and God knows what else, and doing multiple removals a day, you are making enough money to pay for people who are experienced, professional, and will work safe knowing that if they don't they are gone. Just my opinion, as someone who works in dangerous environments all day every day. Where i work, both the laborer and the operator are immediately pulled from work if they hit something as innocuous as a service line, and an investigation is done determining cause. If i fail a weld or xray, I'm done. In other words, your job is on the line with every thing you do, and that's why the pay is what it is. I find tree work is an incredibly demanding and dangerous line of work, and tolerance for unsafe work actions will eventually lead to ruined lives.
I've worked in plants for years, and people have died at those plants. I've heard first hand stories of people being killed on site, and i have had a few close calls myself. In my experience, some are just bad luck, but most are caused by people not being experienced enough. Unsafe actions will likely be ok for awhile, until the day they aren't. Every time you do a safe act, you are adding points to your luck fund, so when the day comes, hopefully luck will be on your side when fate cashes in your chips. If you make good habits, those habits can save you. The fatalities I'm familiar with would have easily been prevented by people taking the required steps for the task, and not cutting corners to speed up the process.
If you run a super small outfit where you drag stuff by hand and shove it in the back of a truck, you can use unskilled labor. In my opinion, when you run more and more equipment, you are asking for a higher skill set to work safely. When you are running a crane, an 18" chipper, and God knows what else, and doing multiple removals a day, you are making enough money to pay for people who are experienced, professional, and will work safe knowing that if they don't they are gone. Just my opinion, as someone who works in dangerous environments all day every day. Where i work, both the laborer and the operator are immediately pulled from work if they hit something as innocuous as a service line, and an investigation is done determining cause. If i fail a weld or xray, I'm done. In other words, your job is on the line with every thing you do, and that's why the pay is what it is. I find tree work is an incredibly demanding and dangerous line of work, and tolerance for unsafe work actions will eventually lead to ruined lives.
I've worked in plants for years, and people have died at those plants. I've heard first hand stories of people being killed on site, and i have had a few close calls myself. In my experience, some are just bad luck, but most are caused by people not being experienced enough. Unsafe actions will likely be ok for awhile, until the day they aren't. Every time you do a safe act, you are adding points to your luck fund, so when the day comes, hopefully luck will be on your side when fate cashes in your chips. If you make good habits, those habits can save you. The fatalities I'm familiar with would have easily been prevented by people taking the required steps for the task, and not cutting corners to speed up the process.
