Tree cutting accident

[Lakeport]

Trees are far more dangerous than many people realize, hopefully he makes a full recovery. I have a bad neighbor. Too long of a story for all the details, but earlier this year I was clearing along the property line of big acreage that we had recently purchased with a forestry mulcher. Nobody in sight all day, but all of a sudden he pops out and I catch him out of the corner of my eye. He disappeared as fast as he showed up, but 20 minutes later 3 sheriff cars showed up with 2 in each car. I stopped the machine and they told me I had to move at least 300 feet from the property line because I hit him with some of the chips. I tried to explain that nobody was outside when I was working there, and assuming he was hit by some (he wasn't) that was on him, heavy machinery and all. I'm on my property for crying out loud, and I was directing the mulcher away from his property at all times. Anyway, things took a turn for the worse with the cops when one of them said I should be doing the work with a chainsaw. I retorted back pretty angrily that the work I was doing wasn't chain saw type work, and by the way do you see those 100 foot tall old willow trees hanging above our head with dead branches on it? I'm 63 years old and I'm not going to be crouching over a chain saw with those things hanging above my head, I'm going to be safely in the protected cab of the skid steer, and I didn't feel safe even being outside the cab talking to them about such a stupid thing and I was getting back inside the cab and if they wanted to they could stand under them all day for all I care. They don't like being made the fool, and if they could have they would have arrested me, of that I have no doubt. The neighbor tried to press charges, filed a ex-parte PPO on me, and I ended up spending a few thousand dollars in legal fees. I did win in the end, and now he has his house up for sale. It was worth it.

 

[deezler]

@RandyT In the summer of 2020, I was cutting some small trees down (<6" dia) for a better river view from our deck. I had full safety gear on (helmet, chaps & boots). I had just cut a small 5"-ish inch tree down and was in the process of standing up when I got hit with a tremendous force and driven to the ground. Turns out that a tree that I wasn't even working on broke off about halfway up, hit me in the back of the head, and went down my back. It was a dead oak that was 12"-14" at the base. The wife watched it happen from the deck but, of course, couldn't do anything about it. Two of my three kids, along with my son-in-law, were there. The EMTs responded very quickly and were there within 10 minutes, but they had a hard time getting me out of the woods because of the steep hill up to our house. They loaded me in the ambulance and drove me a 1/8 of a mile down the road to a clearing where the helicopter was waiting, which then flew me to the nearest trauma center. I had three broken ribs where they attach to one's spine, a collapsed left lung, a broken shoulder blade, a crushed T-12 in my back, and a "mild" traumatic brain injury. When they were hauling me up the hill I could feel something moving around in my chest, which, of course, was my lung. It was a terrible feeling.
I spent a week in the hospital and then three months in a back brace, and 6 weeks in a neck brace. I am still not over my brain injury and probably never will be. I had already had three lower back surgeries before this accident, so this did not help. I also have a congenital issue with my neck where I have absolutely no room for my spinal cord, which limits my head movement. I came within a whisker of being paralyzed. I also have "hidden" injuries that are starting to show, like a knee issue that needs fixing now.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but wanted to share how quickly things can go sideways in the woods. I also want to point out that without my Stihl helmet, I would be dead. It is as blunt as that. Without that piece of safety gear, I would not be here.

Please be safe out there.

Oh my. Thank you for sharing. I hope you can continue to heal, find therapies that soothe you, and still enjoy the dream of living on your slice of god's country. Hopefully you can afford to hire out any dangerous work now?

I feel fortunate to have gotten through my land clearing, home-build and yard expansion phases without any tree-felling accidents. Probably dropped ~50 big trees and many dozens of saplings. I still have a few leaners around the house that concern me, that I should probably consider hiring professionals for.

But for firewood production now I only take the easy stuff and no longer bring down any large or dangerous trees.

Frankly I prefer to take down trees with my backhoe or an excavator now, and saw them up on the ground. Just too much stored energy up in the air to feel safe; crazy things can and do happen.

 

[check]

I have a hanging branch that the dump truck driver broke when spreading gravel on the driveway. It looks like it is hanging on quite tightly, so I think I’m going to have to use a long chain and pull on the with the pick up truck. Otherwise sooner or later it’s gonna drop on somebody.

 

[deezler]

I have a hanging branch that the dump truck driver broke when spreading gravel on the driveway. It looks like it is hanging on quite tightly, so I think I’m going to have to use a long chain and pull on the with the pick up truck. Otherwise sooner or later it’s gonna drop on somebody.

THat looks tiny. Just whack it with your BX25 front loader, it'll fall off.

 

[Lakeport]

I just read the other comments, and that your friend had passed away. I'm sorry to hear that. I should add that the big willows with the widow makers are scheduled to be trimmed this winter when the ground freezes so they can get in with the big bucket trucks to trim the high branches. If the neighbor hasn't sold his house by then, I should invite him to watch from down below. He is stupid enough to do it.

 

[Irishguy]

I accidently hit a dead cherry with my backhoe, using the grapple in the woods. The top half fell straight down. Like a big spear, missed all but the step on my kioti. Tore it right off. Took me a few hours to quit shaking. It was 30 ft long, 14 inches across at the big end. Needless to say I don't use the hoe in the woods anymore.

 

[4Liberty]

Very often smaller branches come out of our maple trees during a breeze. It always amazes me how the but ends can penetrate the ground to a depth that makes pulling them out a major chore.

A hard hat would be found somewhere around the lungs if one of those hit top down.

Arborist hard hats aren’t made to stop stuff they are made to deflect the blow not stop it. Sometimes the hard hat will get knocked off in the process deflecting most of the energy away from your head. A 1” branch falls like a dart and will punch a hole in a roof, yes even tin. Your unprotected skull is no match. Been hit by plenty of stuff with the hard hat on that would have killed me for sure, and I’ve got the scars. But if something falls big enough to drive you to the ground only an act of God will help you.

 

[BruceS_55]

Last year my granddaughter’s third grade teacher’s husband died when taking down a dead tree. He was a former highway patrolman. The small town’s population probably tripled the day of his funeral. Very sad.

 

[check]

THat looks tiny. Just whack it with your BX25 front loader, it'll fall off.

Tried that. It didn’t work. We’ll have to somehow tear it off.

 

[majorjim3]

There are 30,000 saw ER registered accidents per year in the USA associated with saw's. A falling window maker might need more help than a sawyer wearing hard hat. 50 percent of the ER visits are from chain cuts above the belt, so chaps are not a "cure-all" either.

Not all "saws" are chainsaws. Many ER visits are due to table saws and other woodworking saws.