Crane accident 8/31/21 Washington State

[Dan Cobb]

Just curious, does anybody ever do a Critical Lift Plan for critical lifts?

We required them at my previous work. Had some HUGE cranes performing some awesome lifts. One location had a pair of cranes on site for about a year that were so big, each one required 175 tractor trailer loads to deliver it to the site. Can't recall for sure, but probably 350+ feet of boom.

 

[rico]

I was shocked at how rookie they were trying to lift a windthrown fir's chunks off the ground with their crane. As simple as cutting on two slight angles, and enough wedges to prevent the pinch, but were locked into making square cuts.

Not knowing the difference between cable-up and boom-up to tension pieces when they first got the crane...surprised at dropping pieces onto the crane.



An expensive crane comes with no good- judgment included, just an expensive crane, and payments to make.

A fancy crane impresses the neighbors, until it's in the house.

Seems they aren't very much of a safety- culture around there, having just nearly killed a 19yo who was sent to a tree, tying in with a half-hitch or similarly deadly application of the wrong knot.

Yup. A vid of Jake getting hit in the head as a result of some horrid cutting. A vid of a 55 ton crane being used as rigging point. A vid in which Jake just couldnt seem to get his logs to land flat during his tutorial vid on the subject.

It appears that Jake and the fellas might want to postpone their quest for YouTube Arb Stardom and instead work on getting better at their craft....

 

[Reach]

Just curious, does anybody ever do a Critical Lift Plan for critical lifts?

We required them at my previous work. Had some HUGE cranes performing some awesome lifts. One location had a pair of cranes on site for about a year that were so big, each one required 175 tractor trailer loads to deliver it to the site. Can't recall for sure, but probably 350+ feet of boom.

We do not do any formal lift plans, as my understanding is that it is not required, and we try hard to avoid doing Critical Lifts (greater than 85% of chart) if memory is correct. We try to stay lower than 75% as much as possible, with rare exception for the last trunk section, as that is being lifted from ground level and can be set back down and shortened if it’s too heavy.

We also typically work with smaller cranes, we run a 40 and a 45 ton most of the time; a couple times a year we run something larger, up to 100 ton. We’ve never run anything larger than that. Our typical pick weights are under 6k lbs, although we do 10k lifts occasionally. Heaviest pick we ever did was 22k.

 

[chris_girard]

Jake wasn't the one doing the climbing on this job, he wasn't there and doesn't know exactly what went wrong. He says nobody was hurt.

 

[Steve Connally]

A critical lift is a very broad definition according to OSHA. Basically says when you are lifting a hazard or over a something its a critical lift. Lift over a house, critical, lift a person, critical. You get the point. I document a lift plan on every single job, without fail!

 

[allmark]

Almost Every pick we do in tree work is a critical lift. Key reasons: unknown weight; lifting people; lifting over top of rigger; lifting over top of structures; lifting loads which could become unstable; lifting out of view of the crane operator; etc

 

[AlanKekoa]

Jake wasn't the one doing the climbing on this job, he wasn't there and doesn't know exactly what went wrong. He says nobody was hurt.

I barely even know of the guy and haven’t found the time to watch any of his videos, however I find it funny all the haters that come out of the woodworks yet sounds like they’re all watching all his videos, it’s pretty simple if you don’t like someone don’t pay them attention and do you, Glad to hear no one’s hurt. And hope whatever the actual circumstance is when it’s reported that it can be a learning lesson.

 

[rico]

I barely even know of the guy and haven’t found the time to watch any of his videos, however I find it funny all the haters that come out of the woodworks yet sounds like they’re all watching all his videos, it’s pretty simple if you don’t like someone don’t pay them attention and do you, Glad to hear no one’s hurt. And hope whatever the actual circumstance is when it’s reported that it can be a learning lesson.

Let’s say some fella publicly releases a video of himself topping a dead tree. He ends up leaving a bunch of bypass on the farside of his undercut which results in his top pulling hard to the left, which results in his top hitting 2 nearby trees, which results in him being hit in the head by one of those nearby trees. Should we as professionals be allowed to try and make it a learning moment by pointing out where things went wrong, or do we say nothing?

 

[AlanKekoa]

Let’s say some fella publicly releases a video of himself topping a dead tree. He ends up leaving a bunch of bypass on the farside of his undercut which results in his top pulling hard to the left, which results in his top hitting 2 nearby trees, which results in him being hit in the head by one of those nearby trees. Should we as professionals be allowed to try and make it a learning moment by pointing out where things went wrong, or do we say nothing?

Did you ever reach out to him personally to voice your concerns. There’s tons of people out their doing all kinds of bad practices and videos of it online, you’d have a non-stop job critiquing them and I don’t believe for a second you’ve never made a mistake yourself. In his video did he deny that he made a mistake or was it in of itself a perfect learning opportunity showing what he did wrong?. I mean I’d find it hard to believe he didn’t own up to his mistake especially to be posting a video of his mistake makes me think he did. I do agree with you that we as professionals should always point out where things go wrong to avoid mistakes in the future, I just don’t believe you’re coming purely from that place, I’m sure you’ve also never made a mistake, at least not one that you where man enough to post for people who pretend to be perfect and are probably really just jealous to hate on. Just my two cents.

 

[chris_girard]

I know Jake and consider him a friend. He came to our Crane Climber Class down in PA a few years ago and I was impressed with his climbing and passion for tree care, you could see it.

When he started posting videos on YouTube and Instagram, I started following him. I spoke with him after he got hit by that Alder top and he admitted that he had made a mistake in not removing it first and that he had learned from it.

I believe that we can learn from anyone, good or bad. Most of us are intelligent enough to spot bad tree work that someone has posted and comment on it so others can learn from it.

I respect Rico and the work that he does. Like me, he's been around awhile and seen a lot of shit happen in our industry. I hope all of us can continue to learn and stay healthy in our great industry.

 

[AlanKekoa]

I know Jake and consider him a friend. He came to our Crane Climber Class down in PA a few years ago and I was impressed with his climbing and passion for tree care, you could see it.

When he started posting videos on YouTube and Instagram, I started following him. I spoke with him after he got hit by that Alder top and he admitted that he had made a mistake in not removing it first and that he had learned from it.

I believe that we can learn from anyone, good or bad. Most of us are intelligent enough to spot bad tree work that someone has posted and comment on it so others can learn from it.

I respect Rico and the work that he does. Like me, he's been around awhile and seen a lot of shit happen in our industry. I hope all of us can continue to learn and stay healthy in our great industry.

Now that was a great well rounded response thank you Sir! Man I wish I could watch more tree guys videos on YouTube my wife can’t stand hearing more chainsaw I’ve watched a few of August’s and Reg’s videos wish I very much enjoyed and respected.

 

[Boomslang]

Good decisions come from experience; and experience comes from making bad decisions.

Sounds like everyone came away from this mostly unscathed and that is is very fortunate. Things can be replaced, people can't.

 

[chris_girard]

Now that was a great well rounded response thank you Sir! Man I wish I could watch more tree guys videos on YouTube my wife can’t stand hearing more chainsaw I’ve watched a few of August’s and Reg’s videos wish I very much enjoyed and respected.

Well, if you're watching August and Reg's videos, than you're watching good work.

August doesn't have years of crane experience under his belt...yet, and some of the things that he does with his crane (like using it as a remote rigging point) are not what the crane engineers designed it for, but again August is smart enough to realize this and not shock load the crane too bad.

Reg is a friend of mine and though I don't know August personally, I'm sure our paths will cross one day. Tremendous respect for both of them.

 

[chris_girard]

Good decisions come from experience; and experience comes from making bad decisions.

Sounds like everyone came away from this mostly unscathed and that is is very fortunate. Things can be replaced, people can't.

Vert true Matt!

 

[rico]

Did you ever reach out to him personally to voice your concerns. There’s tons of people out their doing all kinds of bad practices and videos of it online, you’d have a non-stop job critiquing them and I don’t believe for a second you’ve never made a mistake yourself. In his video did he deny that he made a mistake or was it in of itself a perfect learning opportunity showing what he did wrong?. I mean I’d find it hard to believe he didn’t own up to his mistake especially to be posting a video of his mistake makes me think he did. I do agree with you that we as professionals should always point out where things go wrong to avoid mistakes in the future, I just don’t believe you’re coming purely from that place, I’m sure you’ve also never made a mistake, at least not one that you where man enough to post for people who pretend to be perfect and are probably really just jealous to hate on. Just my

Jake, and whether he truly understands the mistakes that led to him being hit in the head are not my concern. My motivation is to point out mistakes when I see them, so that young/aspiring climbers here can learn from them. No more, no less.

 

[Sfoppema]

Well, if he gets back into the seat, I'd imagine that crane operator will be a very careful one moving forward.... Didn't get it for free by any means, but sure got a wake up call. Would have been much worse if someone was seriously injured. Can be thankful for that.

That's tree work though, one miscalculation separating a regular day from a crushed house and people in the hospital...
I'm not in a position to throw stones, lest someone throw them back at me.. Stay sharp out there everyone.

 

[Eric H-L]

[QUOTE="Reach, post: 693564, member: 16915" …we try hard to avoid doing Critical Lifts (greater than 85% of chart) if memory is correct. We try to stay lower than 75% as much as possible, with rare exception for the last trunk section, as that is being lifted from ground level and can be set back down and shortened if it’s too heavy.

I don’t want to get into speculating too much about this specific accident with people injured. Not a tree professional and not a crane guy. Just curious. Hypothetically, If someone was going to push the limits a little like Reach talks about cutting heavy on the last trunk section. What could happen trying to set it back down if it was on very steep ground?


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[Reach]

[QUOTE="Reach, post: 693564, member: 16915" …we try hard to avoid doing Critical Lifts (greater than 85% of chart) if memory is correct. We try to stay lower than 75% as much as possible, with rare exception for the last trunk section, as that is being lifted from ground level and can be set back down and shortened if it’s too heavy.

I don’t want to get into speculating too much about this specific accident with people injured. Not a tree professional and not a crane guy. Just curious. Hypothetically, If someone was going to push the limits a little like Reach talks about cutting heavy on the last trunk section. What could happen trying to set it back down if it was on very steep ground?


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On very steep ground, the piece could potentially slide/roll down the hill. In such a circumstance, we would not make a questionable pick, we would treat it just like a pick taken at height.

And to clarify, we do not intentionally push the limits of the cranes; picking wood is not an exact science, so we estimate weights on every pick we take. We will take a pick that we estimate to be closer to capacity when we are lifting from the ground. We will never intentionally take a pick we believe to be over the capacity of the crane.

 

[AlanKekoa]

Jake, and whether he truly understands the mistakes that led to him being hit in the head are not my concern. My motivation is to point out mistakes when I see them, so that young/aspiring climbers here can learn from them. No more, no less.

The thing about that explanation is that you didn’t give any meaningful input on how they could have done things better and brought up a bunch of stuff this Jake has done wrong with no reference point so it really means nothing to anyone reading it besides just hearing how bad some guy named Jake is, who apparently wasn’t even working when the accident happened. But hey only you can truly know what motivates you to say and do what you do right.

 

[AlanKekoa]

[QUOTE="Reach, post: 693564, member: 16915" …we try hard to avoid doing Critical Lifts (greater than 85% of chart) if memory is correct. We try to stay lower than 75% as much as possible, with rare exception for the last trunk section, as that is being lifted from ground level and can be set back down and shortened if it’s too heavy.

I don’t want to get into speculating too much about this specific accident with people injured. Not a tree professional and not a crane guy. Just curious. Hypothetically, If someone was going to push the limits a little like Reach talks about cutting heavy on the last trunk section. What could happen trying to set it back down if it was on very steep ground?


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Yeah I personally would never feel safe pushing the limits at all on crane work even on a piece at ground level things happen fast and there should never be a need to, cut it smaller or call someone else who has a bigger crane which we’ve done a bit of.