Nature of a typical arbocultiral injury

[Diesel JD]

From your own personal experiences and what you know to be true...are more people hurt with chainsaw injuries in the tree, chainsaw on the ground...other tools, falls or crush injuries? I know this is dangerous work, but surely there are common themes that repeat themselves that can be learned froma dn avoided in some measure. Thanks,
J.D.

 

[clearance]

A few things always come up, guys cutting their hands sharpening w/o gloves, falling cause they tripped on something or something easily prevented, an untied bootlace (learn the logger tie). Guys usually get chainsaw cuts on the ground. Groundsman with thier mind on the weekend getting hit with branches, climbers not calling out "below". The little, mundane everyday stuff is what usually hurts/kills people, not the real scary, high excitement trees.

 

[Treeblitzer]

The most dangerious thing I have is my hand saw ,never been cut with chain saw ,just nick on the fingers from sharping. Damn I hate Hand Saws

 

[Stumper]

Perhaps we should define injury-some industries record only lost time accidents.
Regarding the undiluted facts-
Most injuries are probably scatches from brush/thorns/bark.
Next are probably bruises from whacks and thumps from wood and brush.
Then comes sawdust in the eyes resulting in eye irritation,scratched cornea. Then comes Handsaw cuts.
Somewhere in here we get to back injuries from strains/bad lifts .
Down near the bottom of the list we'll have chainsaw cuts, falls from height and chipper horror stories.

 

[clearance]

Handsaw cuts? Must be from one handing, don't one hand, its stupid.

 

[Diesel JD]

Some of that stuffis to be expected if you work in the trees, what I meant was serious injuries I guess...the stuff that will send you to teh hospital or have you miss work. How about that.

 

[clearance]

Hospital, o.k. Cut fingers sharpening w/o gloves in '88, stitches, cut my left arm with a 266, bad, lots of stitches '94, sliver in my finger got infected, doc. sliced it out 99, cut above my eye working on boom truck, stitches '02, crushed the end of one finger bucking, stitches '04, cut with 020 that fell out of toolbox cause it wasn't put away right, stitches '04 Getting cut with the 266 was the only real bad injury. The hospital is no fun, maybe the head nurse is......

 

[Stumper]

Clearance, Socialized medicine or Canadian wimp? Hospitals are for major things like detached limbs that you can't quite sew back on yourself.-You know a lower leg is accessible but it is somewhat hard to reattach the ligaments on your own right shoulder.:greenchainsaw:

 

[clearance]

Stumpy-the wcb (workers compensation board) pays for all the injuries at work. You are right though, girlish of me. Those old time loggers were real tough guys, they kept going no matter what, when someone did actually get killed they would drag him to a stump, lean him up and wait till the end of the day to take him back to camp. They also used axes and big handsaws 6'-12' long, not chainsaws like me, what I girly man I am. Sewing is for women, never learned how myself. Guess I should use duct tape next time, huh?

 

[Stumper]

Clearance, Now you are thinking clearly. While I think it quite manly to wield a sailmakers needle, duct tape and superglue can serve the modern man admirably in a medical crisis.

 

[Diesel JD]

Man sounds like you ahve hurt yourself a few times in the line of work Clearnace. Stay safe out there. This is more what I had in mind...me I take scrapes lightly but any type of cut that requires stitches or staples is noteworthy and serious.

 

[pbtree]

Handsaw cuts? Must be from one handing, don't one hand, its stupid.

 

[Treeblitzer]

Injuries

Hey Clearance sounds like you need to slow down a bit. That many stitches and cuts ,how long you been in this line of work?

 

[Gearhead1]

I've received a few of those nicks on my fingers from sharpening chains, really nothing to speak of. The one injury that was more of a serious matter was that I pushed my shoulder out of socket while loading logs on a trailer. I had it winched up on top of the load and was pushing it ahead a little so it would be centered on the axles when I heard sort of a pop sound and felt quite a bit of pain in my right shoulder. Well, it went right back into place and I finished loading the trailer mostly using my left arm. It seems like the next day or within a short time afterwards it felt fine.

 

[mpatch]

how bad was it??

No major injuries here just a lot of f*uck that hurts. Seen a few cuts to the hands from chainsaws walking down the limb (I'm sure it has happened to everybody most people realize it before you get cut) you are hanging on to and cutting. Had one of my men crush his finger in the chipper (between a log and the infeed chute). A ton of close calls. I can recall a few times while working out of a bucket and chunking a tree down pushing off a piece of wood and looking thinking oh sh!t! ground guy is there now. Another tree guy that I know saw a guy get his leg wrapped in a bull rope and pulled up a tree so fast his head didn't hit the ground.

 

[rebelman]

When using a chainsaw aloft always have two seperate attachments to the tree. Ignoring that one has been the bane of many climbers I bet. I know one, cut his rope, fell forty feet, put a four inch crack in his pelvis.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Last week I did a couple of talks at the Wisconsin Arbo Assoc. meeting. During one safety talk I asked for a show of hands for how many people have gotten cut with a handsaw. I qualified this to mean a 'meat cut' not a scratch. Almost the whole group raised their hand. Then I asked about chain saw cuts. Only about 10 or 15% of the group raised their hands.

Using handsaws with less respect than a chainsaw is dangerous.

Back and joint injuries will catch up to everyone as they age.