Nalini Nadkarni Fall

[gf beranek]

not at all in my book. Keep cracking.

 

[Tim_B.]

Grendel said: "Not busting your balls at all Mick, just curious. I was thinking about this the other day after I set my TIP and leaned back into the suspension. "I bet even this would knock the wind out of me", as I'm leaning back like 4 feet off the ground. . ."

To which Butch responded:

4 feet was the rule, offshore.

Butch, by that do you mean that if you are more than four feet above a work platform, you were required to have a 100% tie-off? Meaning that you were required to wear a body harness with dorsal attachment, and two lanyards, or the equivalent? Thanks in advance.

Tim

 

[Grendel]

Butch will have to hit us back, but I bet that's exactly what it means. Regulations are crazy sometimes.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Yep. Anything over 48" required a body harness and one lanyard. Believe me, you did NOT want to be caught w/o your PPE. Instant termination and you were sent to your quarters to pack your shit and wait for a boat or chopper.

The funny thing is when they needed to get you down to a boat, you simply stepped onto a a ring with webbing and hung onto for dear life... no attachment whatsoever. Go figure!

You wouldn't believe how high you were when they swung you over and lowered you down. Two, three hundred feet IIRC. And you also wouldn't believe the cranes... A big, huge entire room just to hold the cables... and it rotated 360.

It was a cool gig while it lasted, but the 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off... it was like the 2 weeks off lasted only one week and the 2 weeks on felt more like three!

 

[Levi]

That's wild Butch. I think I'd rather be inside that webbing!

 

[MasterBlaster]

It always blew my mind... just step on and GRIP.

You tossed your bags in the middle...

 

[pantheraba]

Crazy stuff! Who thinks up that shite?

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[Levi]

Wouldn't want to drop your bags

 

[biggun]

Yes falls from small heights can get you.

One of the fellas who used to train at the gym was off for quite sometime, about a year in fact.

He was a plasterer, and one morning as he was getting up some steps he lots his footing and slipped on the second step. About 2 foot up. The way and angle he fell broke his ankle and in the year he had off he had a number of operations to get it set, then re broken, pinned and then a heavy rehab process.

 

[pantheraba]

I heard a girl's ankle break once...she took about a 12 inch fall.

 

[squisher]

Worst fall I've had out of a tree was on a mountain bike. Riding an elevated section of trail that was boards connected tree to tree. I was about ten feet up and had already completed the stunt was just lining up the exit drop and my front tire slipped off the board I was on. Did my ankle in. Six weeks on crutches and six weeks with a cane. That one moment ended my extreme/trials mountain biking endeavours. I'll still roll around on a bicycle like nothing but not to far from the earth.

 

[stig]

Jed, you didn't bother me at all or bore me.
I love a good discussion, anytime

When I was a young greenhorn I knew a carpenter about my own age, who was into fast bikes.
He bought a Norton Commando 850 and totalled it.
Walked away unharmed.
Then he bought a Kawasaki H2, the crazy 2 stroke bike with a 0-60 acceleration of something like 3,2 seconds and an almost vertical power band.
Totalled that.
I mean TOTALLED. I came across the leftovers at my motorcycle dealers shop.
It was almost unrecognizable as having been a bike.
He broke his pinkie, nothing else.
So he bought a BMW R90s, went to fix a leaking gutter on a roof, fell off the ladder and was killed.

Goes to prove, you never know which bullet has your name on it.

Man, I used to drool somewhat fierce over those bikes.

 

[gf beranek]

The Commando!

Boy, Stig, you're sure right about that bullet. I've dodged many times.

 

[Hunnicutt]

My best wishes to Nalini and her family.

I've never taken a real fall, but I've come so close it's a little scary to think about. The first time I had just gotten into SRT and made the classic mistake of one handing a cut around the back side of the tree. Nicked my basal line, but it didn't fail. I would have taken about a 15-20 ft fall because I was an idiot and didn't have my lanyard tied.

My next close call I had just isolated what I thought was a nice TIP on a decent sized sugar maple. I tested the line with my weight and noticed that it seemed a little sloppy for the size of the limb I was tied to. I figured I was just being paranoid so I went on up. About 2-3 feet off the ground I hear a crack and landed back on my feet. Immediately I went into that state of mind where time seems to slow down and you can make split second decisions. I knew exactly what had happened and started backstepping as fast as I could. I couldn't say how long it took for the branch to hit the ground, but I had managed to get about six feet away from where it landed. The tree was growing over a terraced garden with three or four tiers and had I lost my footing when I landed, I could have fallen 4-5 feet onto hard limestone rock.

There were all kinds of dinky garden ornaments and artwork and even a glass table with some chairs and miraculously the branch missed everything. It barely even damaged any of the planted flowers.

I ended up keeping the butt of the branch for a few years before I burned it in a brush pile.

 

[Mick!]

Holy moly! that's scary.

 

[cory]

Falling out of tree stories, I was climbing a Buckeye and was chatting away to the client you know the sort of thing "do you do rock climbing?" Me "no I only do this for money" blah blah...
... because my rhythm was broken by the chat, I forgot that the branch I was leaning back onto was dead, I wasn't tied in because I was hardly in the tree really.
Crack goes the branch, down comes Humpty Dumpty, backwards onto a pile of rocks. Six broken ribs and ten days in hospital.

I have fallen further than that (again distracted by talking to the client)

"Conversations kill."

I don't want to give the impression that I'm always dropping out of trees like a tranquilized bear.

I fell about 15'-20' out of a silver maple while free climbing... a decent scar on my forearm from the road rash I got while trying to grab the trunk on the way down, my arm swelled up like a football.

Wow, same exact thing happened to me in a hickory.

"Not to my death", is my usual answer for the annoying question from a client, "Have you ever fallen?" Then I point out that I need to focus my attention on my work to be safe - so I better get to it now!

Good answer.

The funny thing is when they needed to get you down to a boat, you simply stepped onto a a ring with webbing and hung onto for dear life... no attachment whatsoever. Go figure!


You wouldn't believe how high you were when they swung you over and lowered you down. Two, three hundred feet IIRC.

That is nuts, MB

 

[Burnham]

Right. I bet a six footer right onto your back could break a few ribs and give your a gnarly concussion. 20-30' depending on the surface could smash your arms/legs and put you out. 40-50' if you survive at all you are damn lucky.

I had the unfortunate experience to be asked to review an accident that occurred on a Portland, OR urban forestry crew. A training day, of all things. Climber jumped up to pull himself into a low branched red alder, one assumes planning to clip a lanyard in and proceed with alternate lanyards. He lost his hand grip, fell backwards from under 6 feet, hit the back of his head on pavement, and died within 30 seconds.

On the other hand, like others have noted, I have been called to investigate a fall of a little over 50 feet, again in municipal services but a different city, where the result was a broken forearm.

You never can tell.

 

[Jed]

Wow. That's really sad. Was he wearing a hardhat/helmet? If so, I wonder if it got plunked off before he hit. How long ago did that happen, B? That's gotta be pavement or a rock that he whacked his head on eh?

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

most helmets aren't built for side or rear impact.

 

[pantheraba]

One of the first climbing accidents I read about was where a climber survived a fall from a tree...don't remember the height but significant. No real injuries from that fall. But he landed on a sloping hillside and tumbled down the hill. His (unstrapped/unsecured) helmet came off in the tumble and he fractured his skull on a rock as he rolled down the hill.

It ain't really over 'til it's over.

 

[Jed]

most helmets aren't built for side or rear impact.

Bit of an oversight.

 

[flashover604]

Speaking of motorcycles and helmets... Had an acquaintance that bought a new BMW RR S1000 crotch rocket. He was an experienced rider and wore full leathers, boots, gloves, and a $600 helmet. He lost it in a corner in the spring before the corners were cleaned up from the winter gravel and junk. He slid off of the bike and slid down off of the road feet first on his belly. His helmet scooped up so much dirt that he couldn't get the helmet off of his head and he suffocated. His brother found him the next day when he didn't make it home.

 

[Mick!]

I have fallen further than that (again distracted by talking to the client) got up, shook my self down and finished the tree.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm always dropping out of trees like a tranquilized bear.

Client took some photos of me at work yesterday.

 

[Tim_B.]