imagineero
Addicted to ArboristSite
Had a near miss last week that I thought was worth putting up.
We were taking a euc down in a tight space, and it was reasonably tall. Using a 2 pulley setup with a friction drum and a single lowering rope and a tag line. Normally we use different colored ropes for rigging and tags, and I try to not ever buy 2 ropes of the same color when I can help it but this particular day we were up pretty high and the tags were too short so we ended up using another lowering rope as a tag which was the same color. I'm sure you can see where this is heading.
One the second last pick, the guy on the drum got confused between the tag and the lower rope and put the tag on the drum while the other guy grabbed the lowering rope. When I tripped the piece, the drum was obviously holding nothing. Luckily the guy on the tag had the sense to drop it and all ropes ran free. The piece came down and caused minor damage to a fence - knocked a couple palings off which we were able to refasten.
This story could have had a very different ending. The ropes could have caused injury, or the piece itself could have landed on property or crew. We practice not ever having crew standing in the LZ which is a good thing. I was very close to the tree, and it was awfully tempting to try to grab the rope! Rigging can fail, or situations like this can occur. We generally try to keep the lower rope flaked into a bin, and the tag a different color but on this particular day quite a lot of tail had been left on the ground and the tag had crossed it which caused the confusion.
After reviewing the event and talking about it we came to the conclusion it wasn't really the fault of the guy, it was just a bum situation that we shouldn't have put ourselves into. We decided to make it a hard rule to use a different colored tag from the lower off, even if it means tying two ropes together. Keeping the lower rope flaked in a bin is also a good thing for so many reasons.
We were taking a euc down in a tight space, and it was reasonably tall. Using a 2 pulley setup with a friction drum and a single lowering rope and a tag line. Normally we use different colored ropes for rigging and tags, and I try to not ever buy 2 ropes of the same color when I can help it but this particular day we were up pretty high and the tags were too short so we ended up using another lowering rope as a tag which was the same color. I'm sure you can see where this is heading.
One the second last pick, the guy on the drum got confused between the tag and the lower rope and put the tag on the drum while the other guy grabbed the lowering rope. When I tripped the piece, the drum was obviously holding nothing. Luckily the guy on the tag had the sense to drop it and all ropes ran free. The piece came down and caused minor damage to a fence - knocked a couple palings off which we were able to refasten.
This story could have had a very different ending. The ropes could have caused injury, or the piece itself could have landed on property or crew. We practice not ever having crew standing in the LZ which is a good thing. I was very close to the tree, and it was awfully tempting to try to grab the rope! Rigging can fail, or situations like this can occur. We generally try to keep the lower rope flaked into a bin, and the tag a different color but on this particular day quite a lot of tail had been left on the ground and the tag had crossed it which caused the confusion.
After reviewing the event and talking about it we came to the conclusion it wasn't really the fault of the guy, it was just a bum situation that we shouldn't have put ourselves into. We decided to make it a hard rule to use a different colored tag from the lower off, even if it means tying two ropes together. Keeping the lower rope flaked in a bin is also a good thing for so many reasons.