Tree worker
incident database
Fill out our simple 'Tree worker incident form' and play your part in improving the safety of our industry with our crowd-sourced data.
The Arboriculture industry statistically is one of the most dangerous professions in the world. It is imperative that the health and safety within our industry keeps evolving. It is our responsibility as Arborists to implement the safe work practices on our job sites, to wear all relevant PPE, to train apprentices and new hires in the correct way without allowing bad habits and potentially dangerous techniques.
We need to analyze our own incidents, learn from them, and figure out where mistakes were made and how the incident can be avoided/prevented in the future. We have to share these stories and experiences with our colleagues, and if possible to an even broader audience through social media and industry events.
Our goal is to create the most comprehensive 'Tree Worker incident database' that includes close calls and injuries. This database outlines the type of injury, the cause, a detailed description of the incident, factors leading to the incident and what could have been changed to avoid the injury (in the opinion of the contributor).
Back to the Incidents Overview
| Date of incident | 08/24/2020 |
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| Incident | Forearm cut with Pole Pruner |
| Location of incident | Oakville, Ontario Canada Map It |
| Age of impacted party | 23 |
| Outcome | Minor injury |
| Type of incident |
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| Type of equipment involved |
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| Type of injury |
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| Bodily injury to |
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| Action taken |
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| Involvement of contributor | Worker performing task |
| Weather |
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| Causes of the incident |
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| Description of incident | We left the yard after a staff meeting (about how we'd gone 280 days without an incident, ironically). I was the crew leader and driving the truck while the secondary climber was in the passenger seat. We were going walking speed out of the yard. As he was changing the rope on the pruner, the tail end fell out of the window and got caught under the rear wheel of the truck, which yanked the pruner head out of the window. As it did, the hook part dug into his arm and ripped across it, pulling his arm out of the window as it happened, and cracking the truck window. Stopped truck, grabbed first aid kit and ran around to him to see a huge, deep cut in his arm. Another worker was following behind us so as I put on gloves, he grabbed the gauze and bandages from the kit. I ran some water over the wound (a lot of blood), put the gauze on and wrapped the bandage. |
| Contributing factors | Working on equipment in moving truck. |
| Incident review and preventative measures | We had a shop meeting the next day to discuss the incident and concluded that it is probably one of the weirdest accidents you could have in tree work and not something that is likely to be repeated. We obviously put a rule in place to not to tool maintenance in trucks. As far as the event itself, it went as text book as possible. My First Aid training kicked in instantly and I kept my cool. I was able to pass tasks off to the other guy who handled them and was a great support. All I had to do was bandage, drive and keep the injured guy calm. The other dude did the communicating, parked the trucks and everything else. Within 2mins of the incident the boss knew where we were going. The nurses said I did a perfect job with the gauze and bandage too which was amazing to hear. |
| Link to media | https://imgur.com/a/44URmP1 |
| Upload pictures |  |