Minor injuries suspected when aerial lift tips
An aerial lift being used for line-clearance tree trimming tipped over January 6, 2022, on the shoulder of a road in Hayden, Idaho, taking down power lines and causing a power outage to about 200 homes. It is presumed the operator sustained at least minor injuries crashing into a wooded area, according to a TCIA staff report.
Climber killed in struck-by
A man died after being struck by a limb and trapped in a tree he was attempting to fell on or about January 8, 2022, in Natchez, Mississippi. Local authorities called for the help of a tree service to help them remove the man’s body from the tree on January 18.
Willie Jackson, 57, was working alone on his family’s property at the time of the apparent accident. He’d last spoken to family on January 3. A friend of the family called Jackson January 14 but was unable to reach him. After the friend couldn’t reach him for several days, that friend, Jackson’s daughter and other family members went to the property to do a welfare check. They found him hanging from the tree by his legs, which were pinned in the tree by a cut limb.
Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Adams County Emergency Management and the Natchez Fire Department were all called to the scene, but ended up requesting the help of a local tree service to remove the body. The tree service, Brian’s Lawn & Service in Natchez, was able to remove the tree limb and make it safe for emergency personnel to retrieve the body.
The local coroner ruled Jackson’s death an accident caused by blunt-force trauma to his head when he fell and his legs were caught between the tree and the limb, according to a report in The Natchez Democrat.
Arborist survives close call
Vental Waggoner was cutting down a black-walnut tree on January 31, 2022, in Bath Township, Ohio, when he may have gotten the professional scare of a lifetime.
The 26-year-old arborist was removing a few trees in the backyard of a residential property when a limb fell onto his head, punching through part of his protective helmet. Waggoner, who has owned and operated Zaccheus Tree Co. in North Canton, Ohio, since 2018, was knocked to the ground due to the impact but was uninjured.
He called himself extremely fortunate not to have been hurt. “I just didn’t know what happened initially. I knew something whacked me in the head,” Waggoner said afterward, according to an article in The Independent and on indeonline.com.
