Tree Accidents

[Climb020]

My first accident was minor but it was because I was new and lazy. I had been climbing but a month or 2 and just got up the first tree of the day. It was a double leader maple. I had made a few cuts then hung my pole saw about 8 feet above above me but the blade wasn't facing away from me. I went to swing inbetween the 2 crotches and my rope must have rocked the pole saw. It fell right down on my arm. I ended up getting 5 staples. Of course it was a brand new blade too. I got lucky, very very lucky. If it fell i sec sooner it would have got major veins/artiries near my elbow or a sec. later it would have slit my wrist. I have resolved this issue by never using a pole saw in the tree. Just about everyone I know has got cut by it.

Second minor accident happened from works walking into the drop zone without looking first. The chipper was running and I was up the tree about 40-50' up aa spruce tree. I was stripping the tree and as i cut a piece I notice some walk under where the branch would fall and yelled head ache. They didn't move or look up and the branch hit him right on top of his head. His hardhat saved him a hospital visit. He fell right down and didn't get up for a few minutes. Now I always wear a wistle, it can help save my life` as well as other workers and bystanders.

 

[doggonetrees]

Had a tree fall on me by a coworker that wasn't looking around his work area. we were both cutting at the same time. Luckily it was in a wet area. He had to cut me out. Cutting logs with my cousin, he had a widow maker fall out of a tree and he is now paralized from shoulders down. On the right of way crew, the driver set the truck up on a mat that was on top of a rotted stump. Whwn the trimmer swung around to trim on that side, the truck flipped over, with the boom holding the truck up. The trimmer recieved a broke arm when he jumped out of the bucket. Also, during trouble, a service man had a top flip back on the bucket off a three phase, breaking the upper boom and three of his ribs.

 

[Rotax Robert]

Everett Washington Fatality

EVERETT – A tree-topping project took a tragic turn Thursday when a Snohomish County woman was hit and killed by a falling section of tree.

The woman died after a piece of the tree fell on her.
It happened in a green space along Puget Park Drive, just outside the woman's own backyard.

Neighbors said crews with a tree service had been cutting down trees deemed dangerous. They were removing one of them section by section when a large piece fell hitting a 60-year-old woman standing below.

"It's a fairly good-sized tree that they were working on, so that 18-inch section was felled from about a distance of it appears 30 to 40 feet, so that came down and struck her," said Rich Niebusch, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

The woman was rushed to the hospital where she later died.

Now deputies are trying to determine why she was standing at the base of the tree.

Employees with the tree service said they were surprised when the woman walked out her door wearing no coat and no shoes. They say she then walked up some stairs to the base of the tree.

Workers told deputies they were yelling for the woman to back away.

"Apparently she was warned that work was going on, this is according to witnesses but we're investigating that at this time," said Niebusch.

Neighbor Sarah Moss said the victim had just lost her husband unexpectedly a few months ago.

Deputies do not anticipate that anyone will be cited for the accident, but they are still investigating.

Rotax Robert