A stitch in time, er, I mean a helmet would have saved...

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
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Retired in Minneapolis
Just heard a report this afternoon. A fellow was working earlier this week and a limb fell out of the top of a tree. The limb bopped the guy on the head. Eighty stiches later...apparently no skull damage.

Today the guy stopped at the local supply shop and bought three Petzl helmets for the crew. I'll bet he wished he would have bought them last week.

Last week he was at our EHAP training with his usual shiny clean helmets. Last year I asked him if he just got new helmets for the crew. He gave me a scoffing laugh and siad that the only time they wore helmets was if the insurance company was coming out for an audit. Same attitude this year.

Tom
 
I cant quite figure out why employers dont make thier employees wear hard hats , Tom.I see to much of that in my own area and it just turns my stomach as to what can happen.
Two years ago, I was pulling a limb out of a tree with a throw line and it finally broke loose. It shot down the line. In defense,I put my hands up to block it.As I put my hands up over my head I knocked off my hard hat. I was still holding onto the trowline and the limb went between my arms hitting me on the head. I had verdigo for two weeks and something popped in my ear. I still have ear problems.It just goes to show you how valuble a hard hat can be, no matter what you look like with one on or how uncomfortable it is.

Greg
 
I've seen a climber quit to avoid wearing a helmet. A lot of companies may be trying to avoid that reaction when they don't require them. I also see a lot of companies requiring them but not enforcing the rule--hard to make a crew wear it if they are out on a job and the boss is on a sales call or in the office.

I'm not making excuses for them, just throwing out my observations. Personally, I never wore one till it was required. Once I started, I realized that I was bumping my head a lot. My helmet has never saved my life, but it sure has made a few days less painful.

Keith
 
I got hit with a peice of deadwood when I was working ropes a few years ago. Healthy 2 inch dia peice of willow that the climber kicked off. I was stars and was knocked to my knees even with a helmet on. Sore neck for a week.

Don't want to think what it would have been like without.
 
I have been on both sides of this topic.When I started never had a hard hat nor was it required.Luckly I was never hurt .Since moving to better companys and getting a little wiser I would never go up without it.
 
Tom, that is a valid point. I use straps on my helmets even befor I got hit. However, I had changed hard hats that day and it didnt have one. Unfortunate for me.When I was climbing the Henry tree with Jerry Beranek, agin my helmet didnt have one. It fell off at about one sixty climbing through some dense limbs and boy did I feel stupid and naked for the rest of the climb.I dont know if anyone noticed that picture in the Smithsonian, but it had some major deadwood in it and it concerned me the whole climb.I usually climb with a petzel helmet for rec climbing, but it was the wrong color for the picture and I paid for it again.
greg
 
last year I was doing some municipal work in my city. I was contacted and asked to remove several crispy dead elms from a wooded area in a park. The trees were to far gone to safely climb, so they all were to be flopped out of the woods. One particular tree seemed easy enough; make a face cut, make a back cut and stand clear. Well everything went fine the tree fell out exactly where i wanted it to, but half way down it lost a 6" branch which had become hung up in the tips of other trees. After the tree had landed, i started out of the woods on the narrow path to the parking lot. Well this is when that 6" hanger decided it was coming down.
It slid butt first into the ground right in front of me. My reaction OH ^%#^, move and move fast. Not fast enough, after the butt stuck in the dirt the rest of the limb(rock solid dead elm)proceeded to come right at me almost as if it were felled right toward me.
I was wearing a helmet and the limb came down and clocked my square on top of the head.
shocked.gif

The impact drove my to my knees. I was a little loopy afterwards and slightly disorientated. My wife was working with me and saw everything happen from a distance.
I was ok and not injured but i can only think that my helmet saved my life, as hard as it hit me if i were helmetless, i am pretty sure i would be either dead now, or maybe just a little dumber.
grin.gif

That day was October 10th , 2000. from here on out that particluar day to me will now be known as "hardhat appreciation day"

Well guys that was my awakening, I hope to not have any more stories of my own to post in this forum
wink.gif


John S

[ March 22, 2002: Message edited by: tophopper ]
 
Hello. I'm fairly new to this climbing business, but find it incredible anyone would intentionaly climb without a helmet. My helmet already has a part busted where the ear protector clips on. That was from one of my groundee mistakes. I'm learning from every bump & bruise, but so far my noggin is OK. knock on wood. ha ha
 
Not to mention all the little hits over the years. I've been wacked hard a few times by green limbs and deadwood. Hard enough to get knocked down and disorentate me for a while. Those few times the hard hat really saved my skull. A true believer.
We all have our preferences to safety gear. For reasons or another people don't always use safety gear. Hard hat, gloves, safety glasses, hearing protection, chaps, and real boots. I always wear caulks (cork boots.) Once slipped off a log without them and broke my leg. That one really hurt. At times I neglect to wear my safety glasses in the mornings, when their all fogged up. Got to be able to see first I feel.
Did you know the whistle is a required piece of safety equipement here. They can be heard for a long ways. And we often work hundreds of yards apart. Be only a fool working in the woods without a whistle.
The axe, and it's companion, the wedge, is also regarded as a piece of personal safety equipment here. But if you're using the axe for chopping it's generally regarded that you're doing something wrong.
For fire prevention the California Dept of Forestry requires each faller to pack an extinguisher with them. And in each persons personal truck a shovel and an axe.
Further more, today, in a fallers backpack you could expect to find a first aid kit, snake bite kit and bee sting anti-venom.
Dust masks and breathing protection too. Especially on those hot days when the leaf and bark dust is suspended in the air, and just wont settle. I've seen it gag people to the point of falling to the ground because they couldn't catch their breath. Most people don't know it, but the dust from the redwood bark has been cause to cronic lung afflictions to people who have worked in it for years. As the California arborist knows well when chipping sycamore and Tan Oak. The dust released from it can knock an entire crew of men out of action until it clears.
For what reasons a person had not to use their safety gear in the past the attitude today is clearly towards its use. I'm all for it.
 
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