I learned a lesson today.

[flashover604]

I had a friend ask me if I'd look at a couple trees for them. One was a dead 20' ash that the top blew out of a year ago. The second was a thirty foot tall pine, and the third was a couple 2" limbs in a maple that we're hanging against their roof. The ash and pine were no problem. The maple limbs were 15'-20' up so I threw my throw line and, for some reason, I threw my Petzl helmet on. The maple was healthy. I didn't see any dead limbs at all. I tied my rope to the line and started to pull the rope in. I got maybe five pulls in when a dead branch hit me directly on the top of my head. It gouged the helmet a little, so I have no doubt that it would have cut my head, probably fairly significantly. I usually don't wear it. It's hot, and with our weather lately the last thing I need is something making me hotter. I don't know why I grabbed it and put it on. What I DO know is that if I'm under a tree from now on, I'll have that helmet on, and anyone helping me will have one on too.

 

[CoreyYLTG]

Thank you for sharing. I am always looking for real world experience to draw on for safety briefs so I will be stealing this. I'm glad you are ok and hopefully you posting this will help safe someone else that maybe hasn't had it happen to them yet. Do you have pictures of the helmet?

 

[Altissimus]

Won't climb or cut w out Helmet ever ... have been known to wear one doing bids.

 

[MasterBlaster]

A lot of the time PPE is a hassle, but's it's a hassle that must be embraced.

Disclaimer... I will NOT wear chaps.

 

[Altissimus]

Well I suppose if I only could have one , prob be the Brain Bucket

 

[Grendel]

I try to get my helmet on as soon as I'm out of the truck.

 

[flashover604]

I try to grab a picture tomorrow. It's not too bad. A decent scratch really. But it's in plastic, not scalp. It kind of stunned me when it hit. I looked at my nephew who was there just for something to do like "Did you just see that?". He said "It wasn't me!" If nothing else, I bet he doesn't give me any grief if he helps me and I make him wear a hard hat.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Glad it was not your noggin that took the hit.

Sheeit, we fight grass fires with helmets on.

The other day my firefighter was going to hop out and stomp a cow pie, with out his helmet. I says to him to put his damn helmet on. He says the other guys dont have them on............

 

[flashover604]

FFZ, do you have guys try to melt their shields? We had a couple guys that would burn up two or three a year. I think they just thought it was cool. "Look at my melted shield. I stay in longer than the other guys." I had one shield get soft in seven years on the fire department. The worst I ever got was melting asphalt shingles dripping on it. It looked like a yellow Dalmatian...

 

[MasterBlaster]

Lordy!

 

[FireFighterZero]

No, fortunately not.

You will get a guy that will have a helmet get salty from use, but other than that we strive now to cool the compartment!

I have had my pants catch fire, and boots start to melt, but that was a wild land fire.

 

[Ed L]

A friend needed some small dry wood for his stove, had some dead elm that was perfect.

I was cutting, he was pushing (I'm 5' 7", 180, he's 6' 1", 320 made sense) little elm, 3" dbh, if that.....I cut it, he pushed it over. Damn branch broke and hung when it went over....fell and hit me right on the noggin, put me on my knees. GOOD THING I had a helmet on!!!!!!!!

Ed<--------always wears a brain bucket.

 

[Bodean]

Safety. It's no accident.


also, Safety third but that's a different thread.

 

[theTreeSpyder]

Brain Bucket so you don't dent your coconut!
.
i'm more of a BugEyes than face shield guy, no fogging up allows longer wear!

 

[vharrison]

I remember those bugeye glasses!

 

[flushcut]

Just imagine what the little stick would have done to your bear head? For me the bucket goes on just after exiting the truck.

 

[flashover604]

I can fully imagine. That's why I posted. It was a sobering moment, that's for sure. I may have to look for a cooler, better ventilated model, but I'll wear this one until then.

 

[woodworkingboy]

The more you wear your helmet, the better it feels when you take the sucker off.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

For me the bucket goes on just after exiting the truck.

Me too.
Falling dead wood is very dangerous during the line setting, either dislodged or broken by the throw-line/rope. You can't figure it at each time and surprise comes, when a limb pushes an other for example. The size of the piece is misleading too : what you can see as a "no worry" twig up there becomes a very substantial one when it falls on you.
Even the throwbag can manage to hit you. Hopefully it's soft, but the weight and fall distance make for a pretty hard kiss. And I don't speak about some misfire with the bigshot.

 

[Raj]

Walnuts reinforced the value of helmets for me.
+1 Climb helmet goes on arrival at the property.
As soon as I start any ground work I'll switch to a forestry helmet. Give the climb helmet a chance to air out.

 

[Broncman]

I am just a recreational Arborist, but always wear a climbing helmet. I think it was my second climb I had dead wood hit me in the helmet...

Unrelated incident...Safety Glasses! I was helping a contractor do some measuring for a quote last week and I was holding the measuring tape. He let go from about six feet and the end of the tape gote square in the glasses. I had no time to react at all. Scratched my safety glasses!

 

[Altissimus]

....thus the expression "the Dumb end of the Tape"

 

[Limbrat]

I always put my lid on whenever I get out of the truck even giving quotes. My Father-in-law had a 3", ten foot long head-high red cedar limb he wanted cut in his yard so I just took my Silky. He was going to hold it while I cut it. I cut it, went to turn and he whacked me right up side my hard-hatless head, right on the eyebrow. My safety glasses went flying, I saw stars and bled like a stuck hog.
I always knew he didn't like me

 

[MasterBlaster]

?

I'd kick his ass.

 

[Burnham]

A hella long time ago I was a newbie forestry tech working for the USFS. I heard all about the requirements for PPE...long sleeved shirts, long pants, boots with minimum 8 inch tops, gloves, hearing pro, eye pro, etc., etc.

And of course, hard hats whenever in the field.

So as a newbie, I did all that stuff...for a few years.

Then I began to ease off...working in a 3 year old clear-cut, nothing over 5 feet tall for 35 acres around me, who needs that hot and heavy hardhat, right?

One day, I was walking through a small leave strip between two planted units, a few years old they were, but the leave strip was old growth, big and tall. It was only a quarter mile or so, crossing through it was the best way to manage my work on those close by reforestation units.

Of course, I was hardhat-less .

No wind, clear sky.

A "small" branch, maybe 2 inches at the butt, 5 or 6 feet long, fell. It hit me on the top of my right shoulder, tip first. Hurt like a friggin' mutha. Cracked my collarbone. Doc at the ER told me right up front that if it had hit me on top of my skull, it almost certainly would have been fatal...unless I got "lucky" and it just left me a vegetable for life. About 4 inches to the left would have done it.

I was an instant convert. In the woods, no matter what the situation, I wore that dad-blamed hardhat every damn day for the rest of my 30+ years working in the field.