City worker seriously injured in accident

T

TMW

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OH
http://www.woodburybulletin.com:80/articles/index.cfm?id=30327&section=News

A city of Woodbury employee was seriously injured Friday when a tree he was cutting down fell on his back, city officials confirmed.

The accident took place around 11:30 a.m. at the west entrance of Woodbury Lakes along Hudson Road, while the male city employee was cutting and removing dead trees in the area.

Woodbury Public Safety emergency personnel responded to the incident and provided assistance to the male employee. He was then transported to the hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement written by Woodbury administration services director Jody Eilertson,

According to the public safety report on the incident, a large tree fell onto the male city worker’s back. The tree was removed from his back and he was conscious, but was having difficulty breathing at the scene.

The employee was wearing appropriate safety gear, and following standard operating procedures at the time of the accident, Eilerston wrote.

The city employee had not returned to work as of Monday, city officials said.
 
I never thought that I would be posting here for something like this. TMW, you sure find stuff fast!

Friday, the street division was out removing dead Cottonwoods (very brittle wood) from a stormwater pond.

What happened is this: The person cutting wanted to bring a leaning tree back against the lean, away from other trees in the area to avoid having the tree hang up in them. He had made the face cut, then used a plunge cut to bore through (I do not know how much hinge wood was left, but do know that he had not cut through the hinge). As he started back he went to far before getting a wedge in place. the tree sat down on the bar. He called over another crew member to assist in getting the bar free. As the two worked on getting a wedge driven into place to support the tree the hingewood snapped, sending the tree over in the wrong (unintended)direction. When this happened it hit the tree next to it, breaking the top out. The two both started to get the hell out of there when my buddies foot got stuck in a hole. He was more or less a sitting duck. The piece was 22 feet long and had a 14 inch diameter. It shattered his helmet (thank God he was wearing it). The piece had to be cut to be moved off of him.

Injuries: broken shoulder, two broken vertibrae, two ribs, most tendons and ligaments damaged in ankle from trying to get unstuck.

I talked with him, he just feels lucky to be alive.

I realize that there are several things that could have been done differently to avoid this. I also realize that I can't tell a story either, if you have any questions, ask.
 
Wow Jason! Thanks for sharing the info. I always get sick to my stomach when reading about an injury. When I read "Woodbury" I almost turned green. Wishing him a full and speedy recovery.
 
I'm sorry that your coworker got hurt. But this is just the reason why I am always so nervous when I see "public works" or "street department" workers doing tree work. Those people know how to work on the streets, they would never allow a tree worker to do their job. WHY DO THEY INSIST ON CUTTING TREES WHEN THEY HAVE NO TRAINING?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jason, you need to make this case at your city!!!!!!!!
At least try to get them to the minimal training they should have. I'll bet they could have learned something from the day at Vermeer last fall.

Stay Safe.
 
No pull line on a leaning tree? I feel for the guy. Hope he recovers.

Definitely show the supervisor or commissioner the training available for the crews.
 
Jason,
I hope your friend, will come out with a full recovery.

Ben,
I understand your comments about city workers, I also, see alot of Tree companys out there without proper training.
I am a city tree worker, and feel very lucky to be with a city that follows all the standards & guidelines in the industry. You would think these cities, would want their employees to have all the training and certificates for liability reason. If not to show the residents that they have quaified personal on staff.

I'm not saying or reading anything into this accident that the above is the case. I don't know what training he was provided. In Jason's statement it sounds like this guy knew tree work and was harms way.
 
I have to agree with SirTreeRat. No line in tree, bad idea. Cottonwood, dead, in winter, making back cut without wedges and line in tree...a series of poor choices leading to near fatality...but fatality avoided due to a simple helmet, as per City, OSHA, ANSI, ISA, TCIA, etc, etc standard operating procedures. Lots of tree workers out there, no helmet. Completely different outcome.
Best recovery to your buddy Jason.
 
I hope he has a full and fast recovery... he IS lucky to be alive.

I can't imagine a trying to reverse a significant lean with wedges alone. It seems the hinge wood must have failed because once it tree set back, the wedge was working against it rather than nudging the CG forward.

Ropes and MA are too easy to use to pass up in a situation like that.

Jason,
Do you know why he chose to bore the backcut?
 
[ QUOTE ]
It seems the hinge wood must have failed because once it tree set back, the wedge was working against it rather than nudging the CG forward.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is an excellent observation. The strap was ultimately stronger than the hinge. Or, in other words, weight and gravity at that point were undermining hinge while favoring the strap. Bore/plunge cuts should not be used on back leaners.
 
Thanks for the thoughts, I will pass them on. He should be out of the hospital Wednesday and be in for a long recovery.

Woodbury is set up a little different than I would like to see, the street dept is responsible for all boulevard trees and stormwater areas, I get the parks and trail systems. There has been talk about creating a full Forestry dept to combine all trees. The street dept has been through training offered by FISTA.

(http://www.fistausa.org/index.html)

The guys are not allowed to do any kind of tree work until they pass the basic training offered by them. I have been through this same training a couple years ago and found it to be satisfactory for open area cutting. The street guys also attend some additional seminars offered on tree work. I completely understand that there are cities who will just give a guy a chainsaw and say "have at it", but I can assure you this is not the case here.

I took a look at the tree today and found exactly what Blinky had stated. The hingewood had no fibers to it at all, it was punky at best. The back cut might as well have started at the face cut and just gone until the tree fell, complete with barber chair and all.

Will I suggest that ropes, maybe a little more time taken to look at all possible hazzards be taken and used, of course. The supervisors are all ears right now as to what could and will be done in the future to keep this from happening again. It looks like right now they will have me look at all areas and all trees before they cut.

I do not know why he used a plunge cut, but do know that this is the one primarily taught at the training course they attended.
 
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It sounds like he didn't have the full range of training to best assess the needs of the situation.

The bore cut isn't the problem alone. A simple pull rope, some MA, evaluating the tree, knowledge of species.

We were taught HOPE, hazards, obstacles, plan and execute.

Hopefully now the city will do the right thing. Too many have an old school attitude that safety costs money and time.
 
Sir Tree Rat,

Thank you for your professional perspective from the "city worker" side of the business. I agree with you on the private sector also--probably worse than the public sector. I really wasn't intending to put bad light on you public employees, I just feel bad that it seems that many of them do not have training about tree work. I gather now that the two men involved did have some training, unfortunately, the bore cut technique is not the most important one to use all of the time. There is no sense trying to analyze the accident, we know what happened-someone got hurt badly. We all hope that he has a full recovery.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ Bore/plunge cuts should not be used on back leaners.

[/ QUOTE ]....... If I may? ...."Without a tagline and properly placed felling wedges"

Sorry to hear of you friends accident. With our recent storm (here in KY) I'm fearful that, with so many people doing storm clean up, something's going to happen. Tragedy always seems to follow a storm.
I pray not. Here's wishing a speedy recovery..
 
CleanupPro,

I get the sense that it's the size of the city that determines the degree of training that their "tree trimmer" will have. Too many rely on "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" types for the DPW. These guys are painters one day, fellers the next. If we can analyze the accident we can gain some perspective on what went wrong and learn from it.

Possibly, one thing to learn is that their are opportunities for trainers to go to these smaller towns to teach proper techniques beyond basic felling and chainsaw safety.


How's he doing now?
 
[ QUOTE ]
CleanupPro,

I get the sense that it's the size of the city that determines the degree of training that their "tree trimmer" will have. Too many rely on "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" types for the DPW. These guys are painters one day, fellers the next. If we can analyze the accident we can gain some perspective on what went wrong and learn from it.

Possibly, one thing to learn is that their are opportunities for trainers to go to these smaller towns to teach proper techniques beyond basic felling and chainsaw safety.


How's he doing now?

[/ QUOTE ]

AGREE!
 
[ QUOTE ]
CleanupPro,

I get the sense that it's the size of the city that determines the degree of training that their "tree trimmer" will have. Too many rely on "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" types for the DPW. These guys are painters one day, fellers the next. If we can analyze the accident we can gain some perspective on what went wrong and learn from it.



[/ QUOTE ]

Tree Humper,
That seems to be the case alot. I turned down a city job($3.00 more in pay), that was to be or I was told it was a Forestry position. Durning the 2nd interview, I find out the job is classifed under "General Maintenance Worker". At the start of a day you could be tree trimming, and then get a call about a main break. Everyone drops what they're doing to fix a water line. I don't know anything about main breaks, so I stood up and polity excused myself from the interview. I was not happy, that my time had been wasted up to that point.
I can also see how the water personal would know very little about tree work.
I like the use of "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none"
 
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