To me, its hard to know how much to let people do things the dangerous way. How would I feel if I see him turn into a bullet when the rigging rope snags him and yanks him into the lowering device or up into the tree, as we saw in that one video?
When i was new to residential work, on my first 'catch', with another guy on the rope, no LD, I was yanked up a long way sideways and up off the ground when I was new and didn't know what I was doing. If I didn't let the rope slide in my hands, who knows how far off the ground I would have gone. I mean like 20'+ sideways and 10'+ up the tree.
I've slid on wet grass about 15', like surfing, toward the POW once when we were negative blocking logs off a Doug-fir over asphalt. I should have gotten behind something, like a tree, to give better footing.
Do I let someone become another "Emily", an old co-worker who got a MS460 to the face working for the USFS fire crew? She's still quite pretty for a girl with a good chainsaw scar to her face. Forgot about those two incidents.
Do I let someone, just once, roll a trailer down the hill because they didn't hook a chain before getting backing up to finally connect the trailer when hooking it up, solo? I know, back-up camera. I've hooked up a firewood trailer out on the main road many a time, solo, like 200+ times over the years, probably. I can get close, then hook a chain, so I don't bump the trailer and push it over the chocks, and send it down the hill.
Do I let people use 50' as a good following distance for a 15,000 pound rig on the highway, because they don't understand that is DANGEROUS AND STUPID, and they need to consider the two-second rule? I make it the 4-second rule, and when they get someone cutting into that space, slow down and regain that buffer. If they make it to the job/ shop, 3 minutes later, and safely, and don't pull a panic drive-onto-shoulder- and-flip-chipper to avoid crushing a car move, as happened in Seattle a couple years ago, putting them out of a chipper for weeks, and looking bad with a flipped chipper next to their lettered truck, well great!
At what point do I let people do triple the effort for the same end result? When I put them on commission.
No matter how many times I told a groundie to use the AT for brush, and the hand truck for long limbs (balance and roll, zero lifting), he wanted to do the opposite, or somehow move it part way with one, then change the material over to the other. He was sweating his ass off and getting little done, while i was stuck up in the tree, doing nothing, watching him work with no efficiency.
How long do I let someone lift with their back rather than their legs? I have had two back strain injuries that caused me and them lost work time. Do I let a herniated disk, and lifelong disability be the 'natural consequence' of their action, and let that be the teacher?
