Near Miss Today

Steve Connally

Steve Connally

Been here much more than a while
Location
Suffolk, Virginia
Had a pretty eye opening near miss today. Climbing on a crane job today. After rigging up the pick I had set a higher tie in point with my line for better body positioning during the cut. Made the cut and climbed up to my tie in to wait for the hook to return. The limbs were lateral so I needed to ride the hook to get a good. position on the slings. The wind was blowing and the ball kept moving away from me due to the wind drag on the slings. I reached out and hooked an arm through a sling eye to keep the ball close and disconnected my climbing line from the tree and moved the tie in onto the crane. Got all connected and tested my system. Everything checked out so I reached down to unclip my lanyard and it was stowed on my harness. I never clipped in. I always clip in if i'm not moving, ALWAYS. Out of tens of thousands of hours on rope I've never failed to lanyard in, ever. If one single detail of this had changed, if I had sat back into my lanyard, if I hadn't hooked a crane sling with my left arm.........about 60/70' up with some things to bounce off on the way down. Be aware of your complacency. I recognize I hardly climb anymore. I also recognize the headspace I've been in for a few months. The weather was beautiful and I was having a fantastic day, enjoying conversation. I guess it wasn't my day. Just remember some things seem like they are muscle memory and you don't even have to think about them..........maybe you should. I know I'll be thinking about that lanyard for a while and especially every time I transition from anchor to re-anchor. I don't really have a description of the emotion I'm feeling. I guess "taken back" would be it. I'm not frightened, scared, sad, mad, glad, or anxious or anything. I guess It's just wow. Take care of yourselves. I think my family woulda been fairly disappointed if I hadn't come home today. Stay awake out there. 25 years in this industry and still making mistakes. You never outgrown the potential for 1 bad choice or missed detail.
 
That could have been a bad one, for sure. I’m very glad to hear that it worked out and you did not fall! It seems that we all need reminders like that once in a while though, most people seem to have had an experience along those lines at some point or another. Thank you for sharing that with us.
 
Sounds like you dodged a bullet today Steve. We clip and unclip our life support systems thousand of times during our careers and its easy to go into auto pilot and/or become a little complacent. I had a similar experience about 15 hrs ago which forced me to slow down and become much more deliberate in my actions while aloft.

I for one am very glad that you were able to walk away unharmed and share your story.
 
That's crazy, Steve I'm glad you are okay. A member here died like that awhile back, Cameron, rip. I always remember his name. Since then I fully weight any new system before detaching from another. It's a habit I formed a long time ago that's stuck with me. I'm glad you're okay.
 
Thanks for sharing. Not enough oops stories are told. Guess people don't like other to know they screwed up, but we all do it, and it is a good reminder to the rest of us to slow down and pay attention to what we are doing.
Again, thank you for sharing. Someone will pay a little more attention tomorrow because of this.
 
L3VI said:
That's crazy, Steve I'm glad you are okay. A member here died like that awhile back, Cameron, rip. I always remember his name. Since then I fully weight any new system before detaching from another. It's a habit I formed a long time ago that's stuck with me. I'm glad you're okay.
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Exactly the person who came to my mind. I worked with Cameron and his team for about 10 days after Hurricane Sandy. He like all of us was an interesting character but he was a good dude. Certainly knew how to bust out some work. A week or so after Cameron died I was doing a crane removal in windy conditions. Because of the radius and the wind I had to take really little pieces so was constantly cutting and going lower. One time I was repositioning for the next cut and realized I wasn’t clipped in at all. Just made me sick when I realized it and the “almost”.

Glad you didn’t take the big ride today Steve. Big hugs bud.
 
Thanks everybody for posting a response. Sorry I'm not responding to each of you individually. Hope this is ok! I'm always one to share my mistakes. Someone posted a response so eloquently on Instagram. " I just couldn't believe that I would make such a profoundly basic mistake. I couldn't believe that I was even capable of making that sort of mistake." He was referencing doing a similar thing. This is the tree and I was about 3 body lengths higher than I am in the pic. 619FA9E9-8C66-4ACC-8D36-328812F35370.jpeg
 
RyanCafferky said:
Exactly the person who came to my mind. I worked with Cameron and his team for about 10 days after Hurricane Sandy. He like all of us was an interesting character but he was a good dude. Certainly knew how to bust out some work. A week or so after Cameron died I was doing a crane removal in windy conditions. Because of the radius and the wind I had to take really little pieces so was constantly cutting and going lower. One time I was repositioning for the next cut and realized I wasn’t clipped in at all. Just made me sick when I realized it and the “almost”.

Glad you didn’t take the big ride today Steve. Big hugs bud.
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It was a shock to me, when he died. I looked up to him from the work photos of his company on treebuzz, kinda like Jed.
 
Treezybreez said:
Was his company called Lion Tree?
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Lyons and sons-

Fellow buzzer has passed

I hate to even type this. It doesn't feel like it's even possible but it is. Cameron Lyons, owner of Lyon and sons tree service died today from injures incurred from a 50' fall. Cameron was one of the very few good guys around here. When I lost jobs to him I would always say "I'd rather lose...
www.treebuzz.com
 
Glad you're in one piece.



Besides always weighting one system before disconnecting the other. I always force myself, and train people I teach to Look, Listen, and Feel my new connection. I've been wearing a bulky jacket, lately and it's been a hassle to L, L and F, but boringly secure. A shirt can easily get inside the gate, and the biner will hold, even when not closed.
 
Steve glad you’re OK and thanks for sharing.
In one of the oil and gas majors I worked for we were revamping supervisor training so it didn’t get stale. The idea was supervisors would be out in the process plant looking for indications of the kind of lost time accident frequency for the work that day. One of the sections was looking for work/ workers that might be on “autopilot” - really commonly done things that guys might not be apt to think about much. And then boom! This always stuck with me.

To that end this reminds me of a day two summers ago where I was forty/ fifty feet up rigging branches over a roof. The HO was a friend of an oil and gas buddy and he was keeping me royally enertained with stories of his days drilling offshore in the Gulf (the Sea of Stupidity). Before coming down for a cup of mud and baked goodies I looked down and saw I had clipped in both ends of my lanyard to my tool carriers - the black plastic ones. Same reaction - I couldn’t believe it! So guess I checked that box. Confirming to this fella he hasn’t made it to this ripe old age without serious help from some guardian angel that looks out for the stupid.
Cheers all
 
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