Tree trimming tragedy yesterday......

[fortyshooter]

So I am getting ready to take Buster out for his morning walk and notice the Dominion Power has their contract crews out trimming trees that are hanging over the power lines and they are scalping the street side of my three trees. The crew can't speak English but I do my best to instruct to go easy on the lower branches. Then minutes later Buster and I walking up near the soccer field/school area around the woods and I see that a street across the field is blocked off with police and rescue and see a bucket truck with the bucket up about 50 or more feet with nobody in it.
That scene doesn't look good and find out later on local news that a rope had come loose that was tied to a large branch and pulled the guy down to the ground killing him. Tree trimming is dangerous even with the right equipment if you get careless. It was also a very windy day at that time.
What a shame.

[HenryFan]

Tragic.

[BrokenolMarine]

We have had pros come trim trees and watched them work. The good ones never rushed, and if they ran into problems or had questions, they stopped... Took a step back... Solved the issue... Then moved forward. We hired one young team once, guy could run up the trees like a squirrel. His brother was his line man. (Worked on the ground putting tension on the branches or trunk sections he cut to make them fall away where he wanted, or hook what he wanted to his gear lines.) Twice the tree guy dropped stuff before his ground guy was ready and the younger brother yelled at him. The brother told him HE needed to keep up.

Yeah, we didn't call them again.

[fortyshooter]

I have a great company that does any tree cutting and they do a great job. The two trees the "South of the Border" crew scalped big time are leaving the limbs piled up in folks yards where times before there was a truck with the shredder following behind that would clean up the mess.
Rode down to where they were this morning and asked when they going to clean it up and of course I get the No speak Engly!!! So I motion to the guy what I mean and the other guy say yeh yeh pick up soon! The two trees are hemlocks and I'm just going to get my guys to cut them down which would let me expand driveway on one side and get rid of all the roots exposed above ground on the other screwing up getting grass to grow there.

It the debris isn't gone today the Kubota will push it in the street while cutting the front yard!

[North Country Gal]

Agree totally about tree cutting being very dangerous. I personally knew someone who died doing it.

[Shakey Jake]

I hope his family is well compensated.
Jake

[220]

Did 3 last weekend in the yard, a dead eucalyptus about 60' an ash that was a similar height that we pruned back to 15-20" and a willow about 45' we took out. Mate gave me a hand, took our time started about 9am and would have been close to 5pm when we got the last of the last tree on the ground. We did cart one 12x6 trailer load away in that time to give us better access. No powerlines to worry about but fences and a couple of sheds, we just started at the bottom trimming limbs as we worked up then took the crowns out of them in small enough cuts we could guide them to the ground and then worked our way down the main trunks. At a guess would have cost around $10k to get a contractor in to do the job, wife did get a quote just to put the eucalyptus on the ground with no cleanup and that was $4k.
Cost me less than $50 in fuel and oil for saws and diesel for the boom I borrowed. Here in Aus any work out of any sort of elevated work platform is considered high risk work and requires licensed operators for the equipment, Fall arrest harnesses are mandatory for everyone.

[dave77]

Here in Aus any work out of any sort of elevated work platform is considered high risk work and requires licensed operators for the equipment, Fall arrest harnesses are mandatory for everyone.

It's been awhile since I retired so regs may have changed but here harnesses are required if you are using a boom lift but not required when using a scissor lift. Doesn't make much sense to me, it's just as far to the ground in either one.

When they were building our new gym the scissor lift was not quite tall enough and I watched a guy standing on the platform's railing to reach something. I'm pretty sure if a OSHA inspector had happened by they would have got a big fine, harness or not (he wasn't wearing one).

[dave77]

I think I posted this a while ago but here's a great video of a crew taking down a very big tree. The guy in the tree and the guy operating the crane seem to really know what they're doing, I'm impressed every time I watch it.

https://vimeo.com/81240461

[BrokenolMarine]

When we first bought the second place in VA, the larger farm out an hour from work... we had to take down trees every year. I had worked with both my stepfather and my grandfather over the years and had a clue how to do it safely, and dropped a pretty good number over the years we lived there. The ONLY ones I had pros take down were the ones near the house. Tina was pretty impressed when we first married that I was able to drop them pretty regularly where I said they would fall, but I never tried a drop near the house, the workshop, or the coops or barns. Nearly all my drops were in the woods on the 15 acres. I did drop one near the 12x24 run in barn I had built down near the lower pasture that was a danger to the structure as it was dying and leaning. I was afraid if a high wind got it swaying, it could fall the wrong way. After careful consideration, I decided to take the risk, but...

It was already leaning away from the barn about fifteen degrees.
I put a tension line on it and I attached that to a much bigger tree.
Before putting tension on the line I cut my wedge cut on the side I wanted the tree to fall toward.
I put the first tension on the line using a CABLE come along, 90 degrees out from the line of the fall using pulleys.
I started the cut on the backside, then added more tension with the comealong.
Cut more on the backside, then added more tension, repeating until the tree started to creak.
Cut more, but carefully, adding more tension and then cut more on the back. The tree started to groan.
Added more tension and cut more. The tree started to go a bit and I gave 'er space. Nope.
I went over and cranked hard on the come along and there she went. Right where I planned.

EVERY tree with any size, This technique ^^^^ worked to control the fall.
We were thinning the trees in the woods to insure good growth in the hardwoods, dropping dead trees to season for firewood, and cutting up deadfall trees FOR firewood. Over the years we beautified the acres of hardwood around the home place and cleaned up the grounds.

We never rushed, the kids stayed AWAY from the saws while I cut, and only loaded wood when the saws were OFF and Down. Miss T stayed Clear when I was cutting, supervised the kids... nearly three decades and never an accident.
If I had any question about our ability to handle a tree, we didn't cut it down.

Better safe than sorry...