Here are some excerprs from the eye whitness accounts
KINGSTON - A Circuit Drive resident working for a local tree service was killed yesterday when he was struck by a falling pine tree.
Jon LaVigueur was cutting an 82-foot tree on 15th Street for Buzzell Tree Service of East Kingston when the pine fell on him about 12:40 p.m., police said.
This paragraph says the victim was cutting the tree. Does that me was running the saw? We don't really know!
Paula Campbell, who owns the home at 1 15th St. where LaVigueur and four other employees were working, said the men had tied a rope to the top of the tree. After one worker used a chain saw to make a cut in the trunk, the other men began pulling the rope.
Again, we don't really know who was running the saw, and who was pulling on the rope! My past experiences have shown innocent bystanders to be very poor whitnesses.
When the tree started to fall, they ran.
"He should have gone right or left," Campbell said, "but he tried to outrun the tree."
LaVigueur was slowed when his feet became entangled in weeds and bushes, causing the top of the tree to hit him in the back, she said.
Neighbor Joe Mailhot of 2 15th St. witnessed the accident. He said the impact caused LaVigueur to be thrown.
Not sure how getting hit from above in the back would cause one to be thrown. Did both of these innocent bystanders see the same thing?
Where does it say the victim was pulling on the rope? Someone posted a comment about him pulling on the rope, but was that an actual fact ? If the victim was the one with the saw, then the rope could have been plenty long, but the tree didn't fall as expected.
I don't know what really happened here either, but I don't think we should be hanging the owner on hearsay or possible misquotes. If the newspaper account is close to accurate, then I think the owner is getting off pretty easy with "negligent homocide".
If the victim was the one running the saw, we don't know if he was experienced enough for the task or not. He may have been running a saw since he was 10 years old, knew how to properly notch a tree, and just happened to get very unlucky on this cut. As I keep saying, we don't know the real facts here.
I used to work for a tree company that never handed us groundies any PPE. I didn't start wearing a helmut until I started climbing, and that was because of things I learned here on AS while trying to learn as much as possible about climbing. Nobody wore chaps or ear protection for running chainsaws, just muffs around the chipper. They kept the saws in good shape, taught me to use the brake when moving to a new position or starting the saw. Kept the ropes and rigging gear in good shape as well, but just didn't push PPE. They were careful in how they rigged wood from a tree and tried not to tear up the yards on jobsites. I used to think it was a fair place to work.
Today, I have my own company. I hand every new guy a helmut and safety glasses and tell them they can expect to be fired if I see a bare head under a work tree. I recently ( last fall ) changed to wearing chainsaw pants while climbing. Nobody is allowed to even startup a saw until I personally train them or check them out. Chaps on for even one saw cut. I have a hard time keeping groundies because they think I'm too hard to work for. All I can say is, they aren't limping away and they have all their fingers and toes.
My point here is that even with all I'm trying to do to keep my employees safe, I don't meet the OSHA Logging standards. I would hate to have an accident and end up in prison because not everybody working for me was certified and current in First Aid and CPR.
VA
Don't think anyone on here knows what they are enough to know if anyone (tree company or man killed) was negligent
