Can we talk about the day a ground guy dropped a 40-foot limb on my truck

I was on a job in Salem, Oregon last fall. We were taking down a big oak in a tight backyard. My ground guy lost his grip on the lowering line right as I cut a 40-foot limb. It swung hard and landed flat on the hood of my F-150. The hood crumpled like paper and the windshield cracked in three places. He felt terrible, but I had to tell him to just focus on the next cut. Has anyone else had a close call like that where gear or people got banged up?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_drew2d ago

A 40 foot limb did all that? Sound a little dramatic @jennybailey.

jennybailey3d ago

That's rough man, I had a similar thing happen with a lowering line a few years back in Portland. A 30 foot branch swung into my buddy's leg and put him on crutches for a week, we both learned to never trust the ground guy to have a perfect grip after that.

the_laura2d ago

And @david_palmer that rib thing is no joke, I had a buddy who got a branch pin his arm against the trunk of a tree, took him a month to get full motion back, now we all double check everything before we pull.

david_palmer3d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. A buddy of mine had a log swing back on a rope pull and caught him right in the ribs, cracked two of them and he was done for the season.