Drill Bits and Dynamite Part Nine

That's all good and fine, except that there are no drill bits and no dynamite in this story. There are however.... trees falling out of the sky. That'll just have to do for now.

This is back on the Sea to Sky project again. Cut 10 was in full swing with drilling and blasting operations. The tree fallers were working up above on the nasty Cut 9. I was in the parking lot above the Cut 10 job and started to notice that the traffic was starting to slow down and bunch up. On this narrow ribbon of highway it was always a sign of a problem when the traffic did this. It got to the point where there was no north-bound traffic at all. A minute later, south-bound ground to a halt. I called on the radio, asking if anybody knew what was up. It could be a broken down vehicle, one of our trucks dropped a rock...anything out of the ordinary would do it.
 One of the guys called back, yelling gibberish at the tip of his lungs.
 I asked him to repeat, so that I could understand him.
Same thing, high intensity, garbled, yelling guy.
I tried again, I asked him to slow down and tell me what was going on.

"A...tree....hit....a....car.

I have no idea how that can happen, but I would imagine it's not a good scene. With traffic at a stand still, I walked/ran a short distance past all the traffic to the site of all the chaos. When I arrive, there it is....a big tree smashed on the road. Branches all over the place, shards of wood all scattered about. A little ways south of the tree, is a small car with the side all pushed in. A very shocked driver is wandering around, being tended to by workers and other drivers.

What happened was this. The fallers were working right up at the top of the right of way on Cut 9. They had been working there for a couple of weeks, no issues. The expert tree cutters had been laying the fallen trees across the slope, to keep them from sliding down the step side-hill. This one particular tree took a bad bounce when it fell, and turned down-slope. The steep ground and slippery branches turned the tree into a toboggan. The tree faller could do nothing but watch, as it gained speed and slid down through the treeline. It slid under the Hydro power-lines and rocketed past the standing timber. When it got to the rock bluff above the highway, it had enough speed and momentum to absolutely clear the north-bound lane.
 The tree/rocket speared some poor shmuck driving south in his Honda car. One moment he was driving along listening to Willie Nelson, and the next he was trying to control a car that just got hit broadside by a flying tree. Our man was really lucky that the tree didn't insist on coming in through the drivers window. It hit just behind and below it . His lucky moment inside of his shitty day.  There was no one else involved, all the other drivers were in the clear.

The aftermath...cut up and pushed off the road

Lucky that the tree hit here....rather than right through the drivers window

The impact blew out side window....can you imagine the shock of having a tree fall out of the sky and land on your car!

The police and fireman rushed to site, but there was nothing to do. Take statements, unsnarl the traffic and make sure that everyone is safe. The tree faller drove down to the site to see what happened, and to apologize to the driver. It was just one of those things, where the luck and planning ran out. No blood, no injuries...just shock and a hammered up car.

The path of the tree....it slid all the way from the top of the right of way....estimated to be approx. 600 feet!

Getting the traffic unsnarled

The fallers truck...he came down to see if everyone was OK....kinda brave actually.

The driver of the car, wearing the blue vest

The driver, policewoman, and Rick Berg..... the Segment One project manager for Kiewit

The damaged car on the flat-deck truck, the fallers pick-up truck, and a rock truck waiting to get out.

So....the last part of the story goes like this.

I thought that this little incident was going to turn into a lawsuit. I called up my helicopter buddy Robin, to see if he was around. As it turns out, he was just finishing up with a Hydro contract. He was about 30 minutes away, and had time and fuel for a bit more work. My idea was to go up and photograph the the whole site from the air...for the official record. The free ( for me ) helicopter ride was the added bonus.

Now here is where the story gets a little sticky. Robin was going to land in the construction office yard at Westport pit. The safety guy for the whole project, Ross Taylor was there. At this point in the job, Ross had rubbed me the wrong way on one particular incident...so I was kind of pissed at him.  He asked if I was interested in driving up to the site where the fallers were working. I said no thanks. ( I'm fairly sure that I forgot to tell him that I had a helicopter coming ) Ten minutes later, Robin touches down in the yard. I load in a couple of deserving co-workers and fly up to the area where the tree started it's journey. On the way in towards the site, we spy Ross walking in through the trail. I got Robin to move in closer and lower, so that we could wave out the window at Ross. ( I know what your thinking, I agree ) I took some photos with my lo-res camera, got shots of other nearby sites of interest .
It took three or four years for the case to go to court, the photos were never used.

So here is the deal at the end.
Ross Taylor and I became friends a while after that. He invited me to speak about blasting techniques at a conference in Squamish, and was good about helping me to manage my safety program.
Ross, if your reading this, consider this my written apology for being a dickhead that day. I owe you dinner and many drinks. We'll order fresh booze every ten minutes until one of us falls out of our chair, and then every twenty minutes after that. Call me.