14.03.2011
Arborist Death Wish
Every year there are a good number of crane and work at height accidents involving arborists cutting trees down in residential areas.
A video sent in by an American reader shows the risks that many tree workers routinely take during their everyday work.
Click here to see the video
The positive point with this example is that the company is not risking taking too big a chunk of tree at one time, although the crane is clearly at full stretch in terms of height.
The negative is that the man is working from the tree itself with a climbing harness and leg irons. Sometimes this is the only way although in this case a truck mounted lift or tracked spider lift would have been possible although possibly expensive.
Please register to see all images
Man up a tree
The danger is that as he completes the cut the base kicks out into him, or the rigging does not hold or unintended side forces on the crane cause it to tip or…. The fact is that the chances of something going wrong are high and with the man right there next to the load any such problem is likely to be fatal.
Thankfully in this case all ended well – an investment in a platform might be wise, in fact it would even be possible then to eliminate the crane but cutting much smaller chunks from the basket and let them fall or be lowered with a rope.
There's nothing unsafe about this guy working from the tree. The unsafe thing is trying to do the job with a crane that's not big enough. If it wasn't feasible to use a larger crane, rigging the tree down off of itself would have been a much better way to go. If a big enough crane wasn't an option, I doubt a big enough lift would have been either. What is needed is a skilled enough climber. (There are still a few around).