Handling logs near another person

[Jeekinz]

It's been 4-5 weeks, I was helping out a neighbor split some very large rounds. My splitter was in the vertical position and we wer moving pieces in and around the splitter to make them more manageable to split into firewood. Anyway, we were working next to each other when a round fell over and pinched the tip of my pinky between another log. My finger split like a cherry tomato with bone sticking out and all. Long story short, I almost lost half my finger and spent 3 days in the hospital. Just got the pin removed today.
No way I'll ever work in that situation again. You need a buffer, of sorts, between the guy splitting and the guy moving the material. Or take turns. I'm probably going to try a pickaroon (or whatever you call it) just to keep my hands out of harms way, we get very big rounds delivered, its something that could easily happen again.

 

[BeatCJ]

With a saw we call it the "Blood Bubble", no one within 6'. A trained sawyer/swamper pair can work inside the bubble, but they maintain communication at all times. Running a splitter should be similar, I suppose.

Glad you ended up OK, overall.