My lucky day

[TreeDreamer]

Yeah, grew up at a small sawmill, in the woods bad things happen at speed of gravity or spring speeds, like limbs bent backwards or barber chairs. IF you see it, gravity can almost always be avoided (unless you trip, have a tiny operator station, etc.), springs don't matter if you see them or not. With gravity it is just if you see it and how soon you see it.

Mark

 

[gtunney]

So very glad you are okay.

Years ago when I was a teenager, I was helping my dad clear up some dead trees in our backyard. He'd cut and I hauled away the logs. One tree was about 50' tall and about 12' in diameter at waist height where my dad was cutting. The upper 15 or 20 feet of the tree were snapped off and laid over into another tree. I was driving away with the tractor and noticed the top shaking, shouted to my dad and pointed it out to him. He nodded as if he understood and I drove away. Well, turns out he did NOT understand what I shouted about. I dumped the load and came back to find my dad standing next to the still standing tree at which point he said to me, "We're all done cutting." Then he explained why. I didn't initially notice that upper section of the tree was now on the ground. While he was cutting, the saw got pinched so he walked 90 degrees to one side of the tree to give it shove to free the saw. At that moment, the upper section broke free and dropped right where he had previously been standing with the saw which was now smashed. He was very lucky that day.

Once I bought my own wooded property and my own chainsaw (I was 40 by then), I started learning about the proper way to fell trees properly and safely. What we were doing back when I was a kid was both dangerous and wrong.

 

[Smokeydog]

You are lucky.

Had open station tractors till I wasn’t so lucky. Then got an old steel cab six post ROPS cab that didn’t have any glass. Great protection. Built a four post ROPS with top for a smaller tractor. Current tractors both have four posts ROPS with top. Need the protection if working in the woods often.

 

[PILOON]

Was driving along on a divided highway when a dump truck travelling in opposite lane lost his nearside outer wheel.
The wheel kind of rolled along at same speed but gradually veered towards the median, jumped the curb and headed my way almost head on.
At the last moment it hit a bump and hopped clear over my hood to the opposite ditch.
I thought that had to be the scariest near misses I'll ever experience.
BUT
Years later a semi loaded with scrap iron dropped a car bumper that hopped every which way before it clipped my front right fender and bounced off of my passenger side windshield.
Cost me another pair of shorts!
I did duck down on that one but at highway speeds that was scary.

Problem with those type of incidences you simply can't compute fast enough to know weather to veer, brake or accelerate in order to avoid injury.

You simply accept that you have consumed one of your 9 lives.
(Think I have one or two left)