Hunting House » Deer Hunting » Treestand Safety Article
Treestand Safety Article
Question:
>I know that most of the deer hunters in this group use treestands, and I
[snip] Is there a difference between say, a permanent wooden stand nailed to a tree that has been in the woods for say 7 years versus, an experienced hunter, climbing a straight pine with a two year old Tree Lounger climber and using a safety belt? >I know one of those 19 people who fell from stands last year:
[snip] Of the 19 that fell, how many were wearing a safety belt/harness when the fall occurred? Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/ To leave the Hunting listserv list, send a message with SIGNOFF HUNTING
Response:
> >>IF YOU NEVER GO UP IN A TREESTAND YOU WILL NEVER FALL OUT OF ONE. > And if you never get in a car, you will never be in a car accident. And if > you never eat jellybeans you will never choke on a jellybean. All true, > but all pretty pointless.
The use of treestands is a risk that needn’t be taken. I don’t hunt from a stand; my partner does. We both kill the same percentage of deer. I will never fall out of the stand; sooner or later he will. > Some accidents are, well, accidents. Most are the result of imprudent > behavior.
And one of those imprudent behaviors is using the stand in the first place. That is exactly my point. If one avoids that impriudence one need not worry about that particular accident. > Speaking with hunter safety officials here in MO, where treestand use is > the norm, I am told that treestand accidents requiring a visit to the > hospital rival other hunting accidents in terms of number of occurrences. > So, using a treestand is about as dangerous a decision as was going > hunting to begin with.
Not at all. In VA the treestand is the norm too: and well over one-third the hunting accidents in this state in the years statistics have been kept involve a tree stand. A far greater percentage than any other risk factor, including alcohol. The stand itself is the dangerous article. > Since hunting, statistically, is one of the safest recreational sports > tracked by the National Safety Council, I therefore think it is clearly > incorrect to highlight treestands as somehow exceptionally dangerous.
Hunting is statistically safer than most other sports. But within the subset of accidents that are hunting related, more involve treestands than anything else. The VA DGIF has referred to the tree step/stand as "the single most dangerous piece of hunting equipment, not excepting firearms." > But there is a deer in the world worth the equal risk of being injured in a > hunting accident? Or a deer worth the risk of driving to and from the > hunt? Obviously our lives and health are important than hunting, but it is > silly to suggest we avoid all risk. I prefer not to cower in my > livingroom, fearing the grievous perils that await me outside.
Some risks are worth taking, sure. But the risk of a treestand fall isn’t one of them. Using common sense isn’t "cowering in your living room." Using a treestand in defiance of common sense could be called "head in the sand behavior." There are none so blind as those who will not see… > I have no idea if you are correct or not,
That is fairly obvious from the rest of your post, I’d say. >assuming you include falls that > do not produce injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. If > you are only talking about falls resulting in serious injury, the 1 in 3 > stat is absurd.
Perhaps; but it isn’t mine. It is that quoted by Mr. Cochran in his article; and it came from Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine as a result of their inquiries into the likelihood of a fall. I know several people who have fallen–and by the way, they "are alwasy careful" who have had minor injuries (sprains, bruises, etc.) that haven’t resulted in a trip to a hospital or a report. But they COULD have. And a fall is a fall. ALL of those falls, minor or major, could be avoided by not engaging in what you term "imprudent behavior." > Having said all this, I think that most treestand users do not approach > their use with sufficient caution, respect or equipment.
Did you READ the article? The man who was injured used his belt; he had NEW equipment that was rated "heavy duty" and he DELIBERATELY chose it for that reason. He was a seasoned and experienced hunter who’d used a treestand for years. When his NEW equipment failed and he was injured, it was something that NO amount of caution could have prevented…except the single most important step of not using it in the first place. He was, to use your term, "imprudent" in using it at all. > Promoting safety is one thing, but I think you have gone off the edge on > this particular issue.
Not at all. Like you, I’m a Hunter Ed instructor, and one of my roles is to teach people how to be safe. I am personally acquainted with one paraplegic and several others who have been injured solely because they used treestands, and if you think trying to talk people out of using a device that sooner or later is going to hurt them and may leave them paralyzed for life, then YOU have gone off the edge. Visit a rehabilitation ward for spinal cord injuries sometime and see what you are likely to become if you continue to be "imprudent" and use one of those things. The Elitist Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/ To leave the Hunting listserv list, send a message with SIGNOFF HUNTING
Response:
>>IF YOU NEVER GO UP IN A TREESTAND YOU WILL NEVER FALL OUT OF ONE.
And if you never get in a car, you will never be in a car accident. And if you never eat jellybeans you will never choke on a jellybean. All true, but all pretty pointless. >the fall was due to an unforeseen and unavoidable equipment failure, and
no amount of caution could have prevented it. Some accidents are, well, accidents. Most are the result of imprudent behavior. >Treestands are inherently dangerous.
Speaking with hunter safety officials here in MO, where treestand use is the norm, I am told that treestand accidents requiring a visit to the hospital rival other hunting accidents in terms of number of occurrences. So, using a treestand is about as dangerous a decision as was going hunting to begin with. Since hunting, statistically, is one of the safest recreational sports tracked by the National Safety Council, I therefore think it is clearly incorrect to highlight treestands as somehow exceptionally dangerous. >There is no deer in this world worth the risks involved in their use;
But there is a deer in the world worth the equal risk of being injured in a hunting accident? Or a deer worth the risk of driving to and from the hunt? Obviously our lives and health are important than hunting, but it is silly to suggest we avoid all risk. I prefer not to cower in my livingroom, fearing the grievous perils that await me outside. >…I suspect the statistic quoted below that one treestand user in three
will have a fall someday is very, very conservative. I have no idea if you are correct or not, assuming you include falls that do not produce injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. If you are only talking about falls resulting in serious injury, the 1 in 3 stat is absurd. As would be a 1 in 1 stat. Having said all this, I think that most treestand users do not approach their use with sufficient caution, respect or equipment. Even those that use a safety belt use one of those idiotic single waist straps which probably cause more deaths and injuries than they prevent. Myself, I use the A/D Pro fall arrest system, which is (to my knowledge) the only harness designed to OSHA fall protection standards designed for the construction industry. A/D can be reached at 888/FALL-NOT. They cost much more than the idiot belts, but much less than, say, a motorcycle helmet. I have no financial relationship with A/D. Promoting safety is one thing, but I think you have gone off the edge on this particular issue. Steve Jones MDC Volunteer Hunter Ed instructor Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/ To leave the Hunting listserv list, send a message with SIGNOFF HUNTING
Response:
I have copied here (with the author’s permission) a column on the subject of treestand safety. The column is from the November 9th edition of the Roanoke Tomes, by Bill Cochran, possibly the finest outdoor writer in America. After reading this article I contacted him and asked permission to post it here. I know that most of the deer hunters in this group use treestands, and I also know exactly what response this is going to elicit: "I’m always careful," and "You take a chance in everything you do," and "You are in more danger crossing the street or driving to work," etc., etc., etc. Spare me, folks. I offer this observation, and I defy anyone on this net to refute it: IF YOU NEVER GO UP IN A TREESTAND YOU WILL NEVER FALL OUT OF ONE. I know one of those 19 people who fell from stands last year: a colleague of mine who is now permanently paralyzed from the waist down and will spend his life in a wheelchair. He is one of two permanent paraplegics that results from treestand falls of the 19. The gentleman quoted here is another who suffered major injuries. And BOTH these people were as careful and as cautious as anyone. In the case discussed below, the fall was due to an unforseen and unavoidable equipment failure, and no amount of caution could have prevented it. Treestands are inherently dangerous. There is no deer in this world worth the risks involved in their use; and I suspect the statistic quoted below that one treestand user in three will have a fall someday is very, very conservative. I would bet that the ratio is much closer to 1:1 if the truth could be known. We only hear about the falls that were bad enough to be reported; the ones that resulted only in minor injuries and where the hunter walks home and gets patched up are NOT included in the statistics. Use a stand if you want to, but THINK about what may happen to you, and more importantly, to those who depend on you, if you risk your life in this way; and whether it’s fair to them if what happened to Mr. Gallo and 18 others happens to you. HUNTERS MUST TAKE A STAND FOR SAFETY WHEN CLIMBING TREES By Bill Cochran The Roanoke (VA) Times November 9, 1997 Chuck Gallo said he was getting ready to settle into his tree stand for a bow hunt in Giles County when the highest screw-in step leading to his perch broke and sent him fall-ing 20 feet to the ground. It was the kind of life-changing plunge that too many hunters take each season. This past year, 39 hunting accidents were reported to the Depart-ment of Game and Inland Fisheries. Nineteen of them involved falls from tree stands. In a 1993 survey of 2,300 of its readers, Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine determined that nearly 90 percent of the hunters questioned used tree stands and more than one in three some day would fall. Not all tumbles result in crippling injuries, but in too many cases the victim is unable to walk away. Gallo’s fall, which occurred in late October, shattered his pelvis, broke some ribs and his left wrist. He described the pain as "excruciating," but said he found some comfort in each Pulsating throb. "I knew I was not paralyzed," he said. "I ‘wiggled my toes to make certain I didn’t have any spinal injury." What Gallo did fear was bleeding to death. "I thought I had ruptured an artery," he said. "There was a warm, wet feeling in my wrist. I tried to walk. I didn’t think I had a choice at the moment." After about 40 yards of painful steps, Gallo said he realized he had to stop and wait for help. He called a friend on the cellular phone that he was car-rying in a pocket. When he pulled up his sleeve to remove his watch from his dangling wrist, Gallo said he determined he wasn’t bleeding to death. That made the 1-hour wait for the rescue squad more bearable, and it left plenty of time for thinking: about his 7-year-old son, about how lucky he was to have a phone, about what caused the accident. "I saw a deer and I saw some turkeys while I was lying there," Gallo said. "I thought that was ironic." Gallo said he had installed his tree stand the night before he fell, placing brand-new, commercial screw-in steps in the side of the tree to reach his seat. He said he chose the steps because they were classified as "heavy duty." "I try always to get the best equipment for safety reasons," Gallo said. "They didn’t look flimsy or any thing you’d have to worry about. I have used tree steps for years." Gallo used a safety belt to climb the tree, but said he removed it when he reached the top step to maneuver into his stand. That’s when he said the step gave way, breaking at a hole that is part of a hinge designed to position the footpad. His week-long stay in the hospital included eight hours of surgery. "I am basically screwed together," he said. "This is an equipment failure," said Harriet Dorsey, a Blacksburg lawyer who is representing Gallo. "A lot of these tree stand accidents happen when people fall off of equipment. They fall asleep, it is icy and they slip off. They aren’t equipment failures." Dorsey said she has been gathering evidence for product-liability litigation. "I took two engineering experts out to the site to take pictures, to take a look at things, to help me find the pieces," she said. "One of the engineers climbed up to take pictures of the broken part that was still in the tree and on the way down another step broke. Fortunately, it was a step that was only 18 inches off the ground." Dorsey said her instructions from Gallo were to spread the word on tree stand safety and the fact that equipment can fail, and a fall from a high place not only will mess up your hunt but could mess up the rest of your life. Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/ To leave the Hunting listserv list, send a message with SIGNOFF HUNTING