IT CAN HAPPEN

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A frantic business owner from California called me the other day with a horrifying real-time story. The business owner relayed the injury process that befell one of his Tree Climbers a few minutes prior to our conversation. During a standard tree trimming job, a Tree Climber was navigating himself through a series of 60-foot eucalyptus trees, doing his normal effective activities: trimming ill-placed branches, demonstrating proper safety procedures, and discarding tree branches down to his Groundsman. Dutifully, the Groundsman, having been trained on proper safety techniques many times, retrieved the fallen debris and fed it into the all-powerful chipper.

No. That’s not what happened.

During this normal job activity, as the Groundsman picked up a load of tree debris, he also picked up the Tree Climber’s rigging (i.e., “life”) line as well, and threw the entire bunch of material into the chipper. As the chipper met the rigging line, it made a different sound, began to spew smoke as it inexorably chewed through the rigging line, eventually consuming all the excess rigging line that was on the ground, underneath the tree debris the Groundsman just picked up.

As Isaac Newton taught us, predictably, the rigging line immediately became taut, pulling the Tree Climber forcefully downward. Just imagine that feeling! The unsuspecting Tree Climber began his harrowing uncontrollable descent, bouncing off of numerous tree limbs, branches, and of course the trunk itself.

What you’re thinking, didn’t happen.

Miraculously, by God’s good grace, the Tree Climber did not fully hit the ground. Thankfully, the Tree Climber had his hard hat fastened on, protecting his head as it hit the ground multiple times, before his prone body ultimately stopped horizontally three feet above the ground. One yard away from full body contact with the ground; assuredly resulting in more serious, bloody injury, if not death.

Instantaneously, I told the owner to get to the hospital with the Tree Climber as soon as possible, serving as on-site support as well as a single point of communication to the medical team, the Tree Climber’s family, and his own employees. After extensive diagnosis, the owner was informed the Tree Climber had a broken right wrist, no longer had a left elbow, and experienced multiple severe head injuries that required his skull to be opened to relieve the intense pressure on his traumatized brain.

Alive. Placed into a coma. No paralysis. Tragic, “yes”; fatal, “no.” Alive!

Lamentably, Safety Tailgate Training sessions are all too often viewed apathetically by employees due to serial, robotic iteration. That lack of attention, coupled with distracted job execution, dramatically remind us to be more focused, with a chipper, a chainsaw, chemicals, scissors, ladders, vehicles, snow plows, etc.

Per this tragedy, tree employees must be reminded of fundamental industry-wide best practices:

Maintain a clean and organized work site at all times, stacking branches behind the chipper or away from the Drop Zone. Keep all rakes, saws, pole tools and other trip hazards outside the Drop Zone.
Position the chipper as close to the Drop Zone as possible; or only operate the chipper once all the Tree Climbers are on the ground.
Demonstrate proper rope management by using appropriate length ropes, storing excessive rope length in a bag or buckets, and keeping the tail of the rigging line short. For example, when setting up a climbing anchor, only have enough rope on the tail to be able to access the areas of the tree that will be worked on (and enough to reach the floor in an emergency).
And of course, have improved, increased, and clear communication among tree employees.

I am confident your Safety Tailgate Training sessions keep your maintenance, construction, PHC, and tree employees attentive, replete with best practices, highlighting real-life tragedies, injuries, and fatalities.

If not; what you think will happen, will in fact, happen.

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