RIDE-RED 350r
Here For The Long Haul!
- Local time
- 7:05 PM
- User ID
- 839
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2016
- Messages
- 3,228
- Reaction score
- 12,761
- Location
- Blossvale NY
Your story reminds me of another one I had several years ago. Was not a miss and I was wearing a hard hat as well as steel toed leather boots. I was felling some dead hardwood in the woods. All was going well until one of them brushed another tree on it's way down, breaking off a good size limb that came down like a lawn dart from 30 or so feet up, really not exactly sure. Probably 10 feet long and a 2 or 3 inches in diameter at the broken end that came down first. Anyway, it grazed my shoulder, narrowly missing the pocket of my collar bone (I suspect I might have been impaled if it was just a couple inches closer to my neck) then slammed like a javeline on the bootlaces on the top of my foot just an inch or two past my steel toe. Hurt BAD! Then 15 seconds after the initial hurt another much more intense wave of pain in the top of my foot hit...so bad I nearly vomited and blacked out. I thought I broke bones in my foot but x-rays a couple days later proved otherwise. Doc said it was the worst bone bruising she had ever seen. I could not put any body weight at all on that foot within a couple of hours of the incident. Ended up not being able to even walk without a makeshift cane. That foot didn't feel 100% back to normal until about 8 months later.I will add to the near misses. When I hired a tech on another WMA, the other manager wanted to borrow him for some to clear off some small pole timber/saplings for the viewing of our next elk release. This individual had lived on a farm all his life and worked on a tree removal crew as well. He knew how to run and handle a saw, but never had worn chaps. I gave him is new MS 260, MS440, hardhat, and chaps. I told him our policy on chaps and PPE and he was expected to wear them. Went up on the mountain around lunch to see what the progress was, and his chaps were shredded. He stepped on a limb that had ice on it laying on the ground. When he did, the saw went across his thigh. If he wouldn't have had those on, he would have probably bled to death. The area they were in has ZERO cell or radio service. It would have been a 45 minute trip down the mountain to the nearest interstate and at least 1 1/2 to the hospital.
I cut a standing dead oak for firewood a few week ago. I knew the top was shady and felt safe felling it. When the tree went over, the top hit a small limb and the top came back towards us. IF I wouldn't have escaped at an angle, it would have dead centered me. It wasn't huge, but without a helmet, it would have done some major damage. I escaped untouched, but it shows us what could happen.
One more. A buddy is working on house site for his family and he has been cutting some trees near the future driveway. I was giving him a hard time about his little Stihl MS250 and I realized he didn't have chaps on. I texted him to bust his balls and he sent me a pic of his leg. He finished a cut, didn't set the brake, and the bar got into his leg. He had adjusted his LA a little too fast and it was still spinning the chain. It got him pretty good.
So yeah, not a near miss there.... It sucked.
Last edited: