Crazy story developing on the Buzz

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  • #53
Doesn't take long at all to cable up 3'-4'...
 
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  • #55
So the climber must have been dead or mortally injured before he hit the ground
 
Wondering if the climber was working while being attached to the ball, like a rotten tree and he used his lanyard for positioning or something? As MB said, when attached to both the tree and crane tends to be pretty brief. A terrible thing.
 
Brutal. By "runner" do you mean the signal- relaying guy was not in full sight of both the climber and the op at all times, he had to move from one to the other to relay the signal? If so, that is a recipe for disaster even before this accident.

What a scary way to go.

In a nutshell.
 
Wouldn't his friction hitch run before the saddle broke?

Good question. A VT will break loose around 1800-2000 pound on a single line, working on the doubled rope it might take longer. I wouldnt want that much force on a high mod bridge. Also that much force is going to hurt really bad. Or worse yet, he was using 2 lanyards one on the hook and one around the stem.
 
I was also thinking, if the crane was cabling or booming up, couldn't he have ran his entire life line through his friction hitch and stayed attached to his lanyard in the tree? I know it is different in the heat of the moment, just trying to understand the situation.
 
I have done a number of jobs where the crane operator doesn't have a view of the activity in the tree do to a structure, and if you add in brush from other trees being in the way, a lot of jobs..why just yesterday..... When another person is being the"eyes" as we call it, I don't think that it is an omen for disaster, but no doubt that it makes the work somewhat more inherently dangerous, especially if something unusual came up. With the guys I work with, often the person relaying what to do to the operator, is a former and sometimes still operator himself (semi retired), that does seem to help quite a lot. One thing, voice communications makes the process go longer, especially without the two experienced operators communicating. With the chainsaw noise and the crane engine going, sometimes it can be somewhat hard to hear. An experienced operator would seem to be essential in this type of situation.
 
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  • #66
I don't have a problem with a signaler at all, but if he isn't in sight of both parties without having to move from one to the other, that is bad.
 
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  • #67
I was also thinking, if the crane was cabling or booming up, couldn't he have ran his entire life line through his friction hitch and stayed attached to his lanyard in the tree? I know it is different in the heat of the moment, just trying to understand the situation.

I was wondering the same thing. And was he lanyarded to the side dees or front dees/ bridge.
 
The signaler having to go back and forth is much more a rarity. I can only recall one job where that would have been the case, but probably there were a couple more. I think we passed the signal between two guy on that job.
 
Thats rare here, I don't know of a single company set up that way in the state

What are you referencing Willie? The only crane company I use includes me on a short list because of the protocols I insist upon. Good wireless comms is one of them as well as load calcs, site survey, and knowing which operator is going to be on site, amongst other requirements.
 
There is only one crane comp here Ill use. There have been a couple deals where the operator couldnt see but there was more than one set of eyes helping out too.
 
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