Riskiest part of tree service?

[softdown]

I tend to enjoy the "Make two mistakes and you may die" environment - it keeps one alert and interested. Tree service can take risk to a different level. Who doesn't know of someone who died while working on trees? I had a tree on my foot before deciding that manual lot clearing is for teams of younger men.

Came closest to buying the farm while loading the forklift on the equipment trailer. Risk seems to happen when least expected.

Transportation can be risky in a Prius. Now we add heavy equipment.
Operating heavy equipment can be risky.
Chainsaw work is famously risky. We all know the lumberjack stats.
Bucket work is no walk in the park. Competes with chainsaw work.
Chippers? Well what do you think?
Electrocution? Who hasn't been surprised by a line snaking through the hedges?
Ladder work? Ever dropped a limb on your ladder?

As for me? I pick the climbing toppers as the riskiest. I will not climb a tree with a chain saw and cut it down piece by piece. But I'm 63. Maybe I'd have thought it was fun a long time ago.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

I tend to enjoy the "Make two mistakes and you may die" environment - it keeps one alert and interested. Tree service can take risk to a different level. Who doesn't know of someone who died while working on trees? I had a tree on my foot before deciding that manual lot clearing is for teams of younger men.

Came closest to buying the farm while loading the forklift on the equipment trailer. Risk seems to happen when least expected.

Transportation can be risky in a Prius. Now we add heavy equipment.
Operating heavy equipment can be risky.
Chainsaw work is famously risky. We all know the lumberjack stats.
Bucket work is no walk in the park. Competes with chainsaw work.
Chippers? Well what do you think?
Electrocution? Who hasn't been surprised by a line snaking through the hedges?
Ladder work? Ever dropped a limb on your ladder?

As for me? I pick the climbing toppers as the riskiest. I will not climb a tree with a chain saw and cut it down piece by piece. But I'm 63. Maybe I'd have thought it was fun a long time ago.

To me the riskiest part was always the x factor, meaning you are dealing with a living, or dead organism with possibly unknown hidden defects, and then add in height and gravity, and poorly trained grounds men, and the constant pressure to get er dun as fast as possible, and the chaotic noisy environment...etc.
I remember one of my most terrifying moments was when I finished a cut, looked down, and the new guy had swooped in and grabbed the limb and was headed to the chipper... with the tail of my climbing line tangled up in the branch. I was yelling, but no one could hear me, while frantically pulling my lifeline up to take up the slack and get it untangled. We took a break and had an unscheduled safety meeting after that...

 

[Del_]

The drive to and from the job is most likely the most dangerous part of a tree worker's day.

 

[capetrees]

I try to reduce the risks as much as possible. If I can't get the tree down safely, I recommend someone else.

That being said, yes, there have been some scenarios where my butt did pucker but I think the biggest risk on the jobsite is making sure the other guys are all working safe and free from dangerous situations. I've had a couple guys come in in the morning hungover or high (they think I didn't know, please) and until they get a cup of coffee in them mid morning, I have to babysit.

I don' need someone elses mistake fall to me.

 

[gorman]

Keeping your family together. Commercial fishermen, tree service owners, and truck drivers have high rates of divorce.

 

[KarlD]

Tripping up on poorly trimmed roots, damaged backs from incorrect lifting technique and or dehydration and silky saws have been the only causes of injury in my 23 years of tree work…touching wood as I type

 

[softdown]

Keeping your family together. Commercial fishermen, tree service owners, and truck drivers have high rates of divorce.

I'm still looking for those groups that have good stats.

 

[softdown]

The drive to and from the job is most likely the most dangerous part of a tree worker's day.

Driving tends to be under rated in terms of risk. Though I still think an alert sober driver in a sound car with seat belts can generally do alright. I still try to avoid night and bad conditions. Very few leave enough space in bad conditions. Very few indeed. Then three drivers may squeeze into that safe space.

I'm for two years of Drivers Safety in school myself. Three if you plan on going pro.

 

[Del_]

Driving tends to be under rated in terms of risk. Though I still think an alert sober driver in a sound car with seat belts can generally do alright. I still try to avoid night and bad conditions. Very few leave enough space in bad conditions. Very few indeed. Then three drivers may squeeze into that safe space.

I'm for two years of Drivers Safety in school myself. Three if you plan on going pro.

In tree work at least you get to decide your course of action.

Vs. driving were an idiot out of nowhere can injure or kill.

 

[softdown]

In tree work at least you get to decide your course of action.

Vs. driving were an idiot out of nowhere can injure or kill.

I think tree work can offer unseen hazards as well. The stats don't always lie.

 

[blades]

Idiot drivers-

 

[northmanlogging]

They say stupid should hurt.
I find more often then not, stupid people are the cause of most "accidents". Stupid people in a hurry, more so.

Doesn't matter if its falling timber, or getting the mail.

As for climbing, arguably your above what can fall on you so its marginally safer then being the groundie, though a sketchy tree is still a sketchy tree, in which not being a dumb ass comes into play again. Though it seems there are a lot of injuries from climbers nicking themselves with a saw of some sort, but then we're back to not being an idiot.

 

[softdown]

Idiot drivers-

Sometimes it is idiot road design as well. I used an interstate on ramp in Missouri that simply and quickly dumped me right into interstate traffic after traveling a short distance - uphill.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I try to reduce the risks as much as possible. If I can't get the tree down safely, I recommend someone else.

That being said, yes, there have been some scenarios where my butt did pucker but I think the biggest risk on the jobsite is making sure the other guys are all working safe and free from dangerous situations. I've had a couple guys come in in the morning hungover or high (they think I didn't know, please) and until they get a cup of coffee in them mid morning, I have to babysit.

I don' need someone elses mistake fall to me.

. I've had a couple guys come in in the morning hungover or high (they think I didn't know, please) and until they get a cup of coffee in them mid morning, I have to babysit.

Wow,, I would send them home, since you don't and they know you babysit and put up with crap like that they will let you babysit them, to even let them on the jobsite shows you don't try to reduce the risks.
Jeff

 

[capetrees]

. I've had a couple guys come in in the morning hungover or high (they think I didn't know, please) and until they get a cup of coffee in them mid morning, I have to babysit.

Wow,, I would send them home, since you don't and they know you babysit and put up with crap like that they will let you babysit them, to even let them on the jobsite shows you don't try to reduce the risks.
Jeff

They don't work here anymore.

 

[Stonewoodiron]

In tree work at least you get to decide your course of action.

Vs. driving were an idiot out of nowhere can injure or kill.

That’s what I told my neighbor. He wanted to get a motorcycle and I told him it was very dangerous and he has six young kids to think about. I told him I was doing tree work sometime later. His response was that he was now getting a motorcycle. I told him the motorcycle is dangerous because the idiots on the road. I don’t have somebody coming at me out of nowhere to take my life while I’m up in the tree. I’m in control

 

[softdown]

That’s what I told my neighbor. He wanted to get a motorcycle and I told him it was very dangerous and he has six young kids to think about. I told him I was doing tree work sometime later. His response was that he was now getting a motorcycle. I told him the motorcycle is dangerous because the idiots on the road. I don’t have somebody coming at me out of nowhere to take my life while I’m up in the tree. I’m in control

I remember spending three weeks in the hospital after being choppered off of a 14'er. Half the guys in there had a story like this. "I was riding my motorcycle when a car pulled out in front of me. Woke up here."

We'd all ride bikes if it was safe.

The truth is that about half the single bikers I see on the interstate are doing their damnedest to die.

 

[Jackbnimble]

Being my own boss

 

[Raintree]

Trying not to go postal when that 3 day job check bounces.

 

[Jackbnimble]

Being me is more dangerous than anything else.