Guys, don't get complacent out there!!!

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
You guys are brutal.
Safety first is the motto in almost every industry, Aircraft to BBQs to Erasers.

Sure, and what better way to demonstrate that than to put a man on the job who wants to blabber off stats. about acceptable risk, while always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. :dizzy:

You know, that's why the back up alarm was invented, to keep the safety guy safe. Everyone else knows how to be aware of the situation, and GTFO of the way.
 
Guy's don't get complacent out there!!!

Hi Brad,

Thanks for sharing this video. It is truly an eye opener. Thank god your OK and you live to tell the tale. I can only say that most of us have been complacent at one time or another while playing with power tools. I guess the key thing to remember it that if you loose the outcome don't loose the lesson.

Redbrass_ca
 
Sure, and what better way to demonstrate that than to put a man on the job who wants to blabber off stats. about acceptable risk, while always being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know, that's why the back up alarm was invented, to keep the safety guy safe. Everyone else knows how to be aware of the situation, and GTFO of the way.

Well, of course, I know bucknfeller could not be talking about me, because I have never been on one of his work sites. But the stats are an interesting point when guys moan about high work comp rates. It's not just a bunch of insurance guys who sit around in a room deciding to pick on loggers this week. It is because logging and commercial fishing have the highest rates of fatalities in the US. If you guys really knew how to GTFO of the way, you might be paying rates closer to florists.

It also raises the differences between 'safety' and 'luck'. I used a chainsaw off and on for 30 some years before I really learned anything about chainsaw safety. I never got cut. But now I realize that a lot of that was due to luck - and you all know how reliable that can be.

Guys tell me, "I've been doing this for . . . years ", or, "My father and grandfather did it this way and never . . .", etc. First, I am glad you did not get hurt. But that is a pretty limited sample. Even, "all the guys I know" is a relatively small number, when 20,000 to 40,000 people check into emergency rooms in the US every year with chainsaw-related injuries*.

*These are only the ones reported. It also does not include guys who use a chainsaw to cut a tree and are crushed by the tree. That would be a tree-related injury according to how they classify ER reports. Back-up alarms are also a separate category.

I am not discounting the value of experience in working safe. In any field. We rely a lot on the experienced guys (and gals) to help us understand root causes, and to develop control measures. But experience only accumulates in the survivors, and that is a lousy way to teach/learn safe work practices. An experienced guy may be a good worker but a lousy teacher. Newer guys may have to survive many 'near-miss' events to understand hazards, or they may never understand that there are other ways of doing things until it is too late. And trial and error learning can be inefficient and dangerous, especially with things like trees and work sites that can have so many variations.

A safe (versus luck-based) approach uses multiple layers:
- Engineering Controls - design of saws, chains, harvesters, etc.
- Work Practices - methods, training, planning, etc.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - boots, chaps, gloves, helmets, glasses, ear plugs, etc.

Doesn't mean that you can't be lucky. Just gives you a back up plan when the unexpected happens or the luck runs thin. Brad wearing a helmet (post that started this thread) would not have prevented that tree from smacking him, it would have just lessened the impact. A few inches either way, and it could have meant the difference between life and death.

Philbert
 
I think that the problem that experienced people have with safety guys is that they don't get anything out of them that they don't already know, and that they tell you what an acceptable risk is based on averages (out of necessity) that tend not to apply to any individual on the job site. . . . . That's why your interpretation: . . .Is off the mark.

Edisto, Thanks for your input and clarifying your post. I think you know what I was referring to: companies who say one thing and provide incentives to ignore them. At the lowest level, 'safety guys' have to run around to enforce compliance in those situations, or work with folks who don't really understand the hazards. This applies to all lines of work. But if all they are doing is citing regulations, they are not really filling the whole safety role.

You are right about general safety 'rules'. They are typically based on past experiences and anticipated situations. There will always be exceptional situations which may require a non-traditional approach, after a careful review of potential hazards. This should be a situation where you can work through a specific plan with a reasonable safety person on site. But that is different than ignoring safety fundamentals or taking a let's-try-this-and-hope-for-the-best approach, especially on an on-going basis.

In the specific instance that spawned this Velcro thread (as has been pointed out previously) not having a helmet was not the issue, and concluding that wearing a helmet is the solution is, in my view, more dangerous than deciding not to wear a helmet.

Agreed that wearing a helmet would not have prevented the incident. It is just one of those layers that help when things do not go as planned. Because head injuries are quite common in logging/tree work, it is just one of those things we promote as a basic part of the work.

That said, companies are responsible for creating a safe work environment, . . . It's hard to argue against erring on the side of safety. Incident reports can be a gold mine. . .

We will not prevent every injury, but we should try to learn and not repeat mistakes where we can. I try to understand the rationale for every standard or regulation I am asked to enforce, and I try to learn as much about the jobs as I can from the employees doing the work.

Philbert
 
Is this the new bacon thread?
just bought some thick sliced peppered bacon, I'm headed for kitchen.

It just keeps getting better around here. :D

DSC_5223.JPG
 

Latest posts

Back
Top