John Paul Sanborn
Above average climber
It took me a while to figure out how I would present this debacle, and whether I would post anything at all. It was more then embarrassing or humbling; it made me doubt whether i wanted to keep on going.
The short story is that Dave (treeslayer) had me down to help with storm work, and I darn near killed him in a struck-by incident. As many of you will recall, I am a big advocate of command and response, Dave on the other-hand has been been on the other side of the argument when it has been purely academic.
We were on a box elder removal, and I was cleaning off a stub-log low on the tree. looking at it afterwards, even though my relief cut and top cut matched, a small tab of wood peeled out and threw the log back about five feet. He had stepped back into the DZ to finish a cut and had his back to me. The log caught him in the back of the helmet, braking the Pacific Kevlar in two places. The ground guys say it flipped him over in a full somersault.
I hear them calling his name, telling him to lay still. I loo down and he is bleeding from head, ears and mouth.
and his eyes are rolling back in his head.
I wanted to puke, cry, run away....
I bail out of the tree and try to help keep him still, but he was out cold for a few minutes.
Long story short, he shook it off and refused to go with the EMT's; though we made him sit the rest of the day out as we finished the tree off. (oh and he took all the sympathy he could garner from the neighborhood ladies).
Dave takes responsibility for being dumb enough be working in the DZ while the climber has his saw on, and "turning my back on the job". But I cannot get around the cold fact that my actions nearly caused the death of a friend I has treated me more then fair for nearly ten years. It was a preventable incident, I could have;
* put a rope on it, but everyone else was busy. It was faster to drop the chunk.
* cut the ears so there was no chance of a tear. Didn't even consider it.
* stop before I finish the cut to check the full DZ. But I had eyes on the junior members of the crew, I don't have to look out for DAVE!
It still chokes me up, I do not know what I would have done if he'd been seriously hurt...or God Forbid...
Blame it on the heat, the late day, what ever. I violated a personal rule that I have preached on way too many times here. Production is not worth shortcuts in safety, it does not matter how good you are, who much experience you have. Things can happen.
BTW, the bleeding from the head and ears was from the headband and harness when it was nocked off his head, and he bit the inside of his mouth.
I am still saying little prayers of thanksgiving.
The short story is that Dave (treeslayer) had me down to help with storm work, and I darn near killed him in a struck-by incident. As many of you will recall, I am a big advocate of command and response, Dave on the other-hand has been been on the other side of the argument when it has been purely academic.
We were on a box elder removal, and I was cleaning off a stub-log low on the tree. looking at it afterwards, even though my relief cut and top cut matched, a small tab of wood peeled out and threw the log back about five feet. He had stepped back into the DZ to finish a cut and had his back to me. The log caught him in the back of the helmet, braking the Pacific Kevlar in two places. The ground guys say it flipped him over in a full somersault.
I hear them calling his name, telling him to lay still. I loo down and he is bleeding from head, ears and mouth.
and his eyes are rolling back in his head.I wanted to puke, cry, run away....
I bail out of the tree and try to help keep him still, but he was out cold for a few minutes.
Long story short, he shook it off and refused to go with the EMT's; though we made him sit the rest of the day out as we finished the tree off. (oh and he took all the sympathy he could garner from the neighborhood ladies).
Dave takes responsibility for being dumb enough be working in the DZ while the climber has his saw on, and "turning my back on the job". But I cannot get around the cold fact that my actions nearly caused the death of a friend I has treated me more then fair for nearly ten years. It was a preventable incident, I could have;
* put a rope on it, but everyone else was busy. It was faster to drop the chunk.
* cut the ears so there was no chance of a tear. Didn't even consider it.
* stop before I finish the cut to check the full DZ. But I had eyes on the junior members of the crew, I don't have to look out for DAVE!
It still chokes me up, I do not know what I would have done if he'd been seriously hurt...or God Forbid...
Blame it on the heat, the late day, what ever. I violated a personal rule that I have preached on way too many times here. Production is not worth shortcuts in safety, it does not matter how good you are, who much experience you have. Things can happen.
BTW, the bleeding from the head and ears was from the headband and harness when it was nocked off his head, and he bit the inside of his mouth.
I am still saying little prayers of thanksgiving.
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