Incident

struck by broken limb / laceration

Date of incident

2022-09-28

Location of incident

new hope pa United States

Age of impacted party

57

Outcome

Minor injury

Type of incident

Cut body part, Struck by tree part

Type of equipment involved

Rigging rope

Type of injury

Cut/Laceration

Bodily injury to

Head/neck

Action taken

First aid administered (not by medical professional), Onsite Medical Professional assistance

Involvement of contributor

Worker performing task

Weather

Sunny/mostly sunny

Causes of the incident

Part tree failure

Description of incident

Uprooting white pine, maneuvering a rigging rope around the trunk where a limb under slight tension from another tree was touching the leaning tree, about 15 feet high. Was wearing a hard hat and safety glasses but looking straight up when it broke. Never saw it break, just heard a pop and then it seemed like it immediately struck my hard hat and forehead. Although, with 25 years experience, I am aware that white pine limbs are brittle, for some reason I wasn’t anticipating that a limb could break just by maneuvering a rope past it.

Contributing factors

talking to customer, extreme brittleness of species (white pine ).

Incident review and preventative measures

I will definitely anticipate this next time

Form completed by (optional)

Paul Lanctot