I'm lucky to have the injurys I have

[DeAvilaTree]

I wanted to share my recent accident with you guys. On 7/7 I was finishing up the day with a small cabling job. I was parked on the street and I snaked my way thru the pole wires to get to my tree in my bucket truck. Finished the job and was making my out to fold up the boom. As I turning a piece of my plywood that I store next to the turrent hit my upper/lower selector switch and one of my boom controls. It took my control away from me, and sent me up while I was under the primary wires. I yelled to my helper to clear the wood but he couldn't it was wedged to tight, so I told him to shut down the truck. He got the truck shut down and he heard me hit the ground.
Before I fell I sat down inside my bucket thought for sure Iwas going to get fried. I braced myself as much as I could. The bucket broke and emptied me and the liner I fell 40' and landed in the street. That was the last thing I remembered.
I woke up day later in hospital. I ended up with 13kv burn on my forehead,arm,and just under armpit, I broke 4 ribs 2 on each side, bruised both lungs, broke my upper left arm,shattered my elbow, broke my pelvic bone 8 places, shattered my tailbone, internial bleeding of my pelvic area, and lots of nerve damage in my left leg.
Needless to say I'm typing this from my hospital bed right now, hopefuly I'll be able to walk in 7-11 weeks. Lucky with the injurys I have.

 

[lone wolf]

I wanted to share my recent accident with you guys. On 7/7 I was finishing up the day with a small cabling job. I was parked on the street and I snaked my way thru the pole wires to get to my tree in my bucket truck. Finished the job and was making my out to fold up the boom. As I turning a piece of my plywood that I store next to the turrent hit my upper/lower selector switch and one of my boom controls. It took my control away from me, and sent me up while I was under the primary wires. I yelled to my helper to clear the wood but he couldn't it was wedged to tight, so I told him to shut down the truck. He got the truck shut down and he heard me hit the ground.
Before I fell I sat down inside my bucket thought for sure Iwas going to get fried. I braced myself as much as I could. The bucket broke and emptied me and the liner I fell 40' and landed in the street. That was the last thing I remembered.
I woke up day later in hospital. I ended up with 13kv burn on my forehead,arm,and just under armpit, I broke 4 ribs 2 on each side, bruised both lungs, broke my upper left arm,shattered my elbow, broke my pelvic bone 8 places, shattered my tailbone, internial bleeding of my pelvic area, and lots of nerve damage in my left leg.
Needless to say I'm typing this from my hospital bed right now, hopefuly I'll be able to walk in 7-11 weeks. Lucky with the injurys I have.

Good God man you are lucky.I cant believe you can type after that .Well I guess you are one strong guy.Amazing story really.Heal well my friend.

 

[sawinredneck]

Damn lucky and a damn good attitude about it! I hope you heal soon and glad you posted this, it takes balls to admit our mess ups!
Maybe someone can learn from this, even as careful as you are, things happen. People get mad at us when we talk about how dangerous this industry is and try to caution them. It's sad to hear stories like this, even with experience you can't be prepared enough!
Good luck to you and keep up the good spirits, it helps the healing process!

 

[Rftreeman]

I'll start with I very glad you're alive and end with this, I hope you learned two very important lessons here......

 

[Sagetown]

You were very fortunate my friend. That was some quick thinking.
I knew of a similar event years ago, and the guy perished in a horrible scene.
Hope you have a good and speedy recovery.:msp_wink:

 

[Bounty Hunter]

I wanted to share my recent accident with you guys. On 7/7 I was finishing up the day with a small cabling job. I was parked on the street and I snaked my way thru the pole wires to get to my tree in my bucket truck. Finished the job and was making my out to fold up the boom. As I turning a piece of my plywood that I store next to the turrent hit my upper/lower selector switch and one of my boom controls. It took my control away from me, and sent me up while I was under the primary wires. I yelled to my helper to clear the wood but he couldn't it was wedged to tight, so I told him to shut down the truck. He got the truck shut down and he heard me hit the ground.
Before I fell I sat down inside my bucket thought for sure Iwas going to get fried. I braced myself as much as I could. The bucket broke and emptied me and the liner I fell 40' and landed in the street. That was the last thing I remembered.
I woke up day later in hospital. I ended up with 13kv burn on my forehead,arm,and just under armpit, I broke 4 ribs 2 on each side, bruised both lungs, broke my upper left arm,shattered my elbow, broke my pelvic bone 8 places, shattered my tailbone, internial bleeding of my pelvic area, and lots of nerve damage in my left leg.
Needless to say I'm typing this from my hospital bed right now, hopefuly I'll be able to walk in 7-11 weeks. Lucky with the injurys I have.

WOW Brother...That's an amazing story...glad yer able to write about it, and tell your friends here on ArboristSite.

Get well soon, and keep us posted...i know the recovery is gonna be tough, especially the pelvic injury...ouch! Make sure ya follow the Physical Therapist's orders, and keep yer strength and mobility up on the parts and muscles of your body that you can work out with. Take vitamin and mineral supplements, and branched-chain amino acids (clear it with yer MD first) they will help with the healing process.

At least you will have a little more time to hang out on AS!

Take good care of yerself and keep posting Brother!

 

[deevo]

I wanted to share my recent accident with you guys. On 7/7 I was finishing up the day with a small cabling job. I was parked on the street and I snaked my way thru the pole wires to get to my tree in my bucket truck. Finished the job and was making my out to fold up the boom. As I turning a piece of my plywood that I store next to the turrent hit my upper/lower selector switch and one of my boom controls. It took my control away from me, and sent me up while I was under the primary wires. I yelled to my helper to clear the wood but he couldn't it was wedged to tight, so I told him to shut down the truck. He got the truck shut down and he heard me hit the ground.
Before I fell I sat down inside my bucket thought for sure Iwas going to get fried. I braced myself as much as I could. The bucket broke and emptied me and the liner I fell 40' and landed in the street. That was the last thing I remembered.
I woke up day later in hospital. I ended up with 13kv burn on my forehead,arm,and just under armpit, I broke 4 ribs 2 on each side, bruised both lungs, broke my upper left arm,shattered my elbow, broke my pelvic bone 8 places, shattered my tailbone, internial bleeding of my pelvic area, and lots of nerve damage in my left leg.
Needless to say I'm typing this from my hospital bed right now, hopefuly I'll be able to walk in 7-11 weeks. Lucky with the injurys I have.

Wow, that's quite an accident, glad you are still here and hope you have a speedy recovery!

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

Sorry to hear of your accident. Hope you can recover well. Question in my mind is were you wearing a fall arrest harness or not? Seems to me you got away with life considering the fall height.

 

[DeAvilaTree]

Sorry to hear of your accident. Hope you can recover well. Question in my mind is were you wearing a fall arrest harness or not? Seems to me you got away with life considering the fall height.

i was not wearing a fall arrest, from now on I won't go up with out one. A stupid way to learn my lesson but it's learned now and I have to take care of my familly and friends they need me I'm not going to risk that ever again.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

I am glad to hear you made it. Were you working for yourself or a employer? I watch a friend do something similar and the harness saved him alot of pain and suffering.

 

[DeAvilaTree]

I'm the owner of the company

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

Did you have to report it to the state OSHA office? In my state even owner/operators are required to report all major accidents.

 

[DeAvilaTree]

In Mass. the fire dept. is required to report it. I have to meet with him when I'm feeling better. I'm not being punished or fined, but they want to educate me on safty procedures

 

[mattfr12]

In Mass. the fire dept. is required to report it. I have to meet with him when I'm feeling better. I'm not being punished or fined, but they want to educate me on safty procedures

what caused the bucket to break just the contact with the wires?

 

[Komitet]

Glad to hear you're pulling through, was there no emergency stop with the upper controls? Whether it was on lower or upper selector it should have stopped the hydraulics.

 

[DeAvilaTree]

The truck is older it doesn't have an e-stop, my bucket has a rating of 300lbs. the truck was trying to lift the pole out of the ground.

 

[tree MDS]

The truck is older it doesn't have an e-stop, my bucket has a rating of 300lbs. the truck was trying to lift the pole out of the ground.

The whole deal sound horrible dude! Hope you heal up well. Truely sorry to hear of such a thing..

Stay strong brother!

 

[flushcut]

Heal up quick and don't forget to buy your guardian angel a beer.

 

[promac850]

Good grief... I hope you heal up quick. Sounds like that left leg damage might result in a unique walk...

Power lines and humans ain't a good match... ouch.

I've seen much worse damage caused by a human contacting a power line... one guy's (yes, I saw the photos in a safety class at the tech center) muscles contracted with more than enough force to completely crush almost every bone in his body... it wasn't pretty... imagine shards of the femurs, tibia, fibula, humorous, radius, ulna, and just about everything else like his ribs, were broken too. OUCH... he survived, but can't move around much...

Like you said, you are very lucky to have survived this accident, especially factoring in the 40 foot fall... damn, that really sucks.

 

[tree MDS]

Good grief... I hope you heal up quick. Sounds like that left leg damage might result in a unique walk...

Power lines and humans ain't a good match... ouch.

I've seen much worse damage caused by a human contacting a power line... one guy's (yes, I saw the photos in a safety class at the tech center) muscles contracted with more than enough force to completely crush almost every bone in his body... it wasn't pretty... imagine shards of the femurs, tibia, fibula, humorous, radius, ulna, and just about everything else like his ribs, were broken too. OUCH... he survived, but can't move around much...

Like you said, you are very lucky to have survived this accident, especially factoring in the 40 foot fall... damn, that really sucks.

Jesus, that's a horrible thing to imagine... thankfully the horror is offset by your avatar!