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Calif. Man Decapitated in Freak Wood Chipper Accident
- Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:31am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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A 50-year-old tree trimmer from California died this week when he became entangled in an industrial wood chipper.
According to reports, Martin Lara didn’t die by being shredded in the trimmer. Instead, he was decapitated by a rope that was attached to a tree. The sheer force of that rope, which was wrapped around his upper body, being pulled into the device is what led to his death.
The Daily Mail has more:
His body was pulled towards the cone of the wood chipper, but a colleague stopped the machine before his body was dragged inside the rotors.
Fellow crew members heard the man scream but could not help him in time.Sheriff’s Sgt. Hap Penaluna called it ‘a freak accident.’
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Comments (104)
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:21am.
Report Post »Wakeing up next to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, after a 3 day bender. Is the only reason I could think of, that would make a guy Put his Head in a Wood Chipper……
heyjim55
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:19amThat was a good one !
Report Post »JERSEYJUDE
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:25am@Spankdamonkey….God Bless this man’s family, but Oh my goodness…that’s hysterical!
Report Post »db321
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:42amI was about the blast the blaze for putting a story like this up – now after reading Monkey’s post – I cant stop laughing.
Very sorry for the family of this hard working man in the story – may God comfort those who morn.
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:58amThe Blaze writes, “the shear force of that rope” when they meant to say “sheer”
…. what a bunch of cut-ups! That slays me!
Laffin’ my head off! What a drag that rope was! He looked pretty “chipper” in the picture! Just sayin’
TEE
Report Post »sam27
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 12:00pmperfect!
Report Post »sam27
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 12:02pmPerfect!! That woman is evil incarnate.
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 1:16pmThere’s nothing funny here period…There’s only a wife that lost her husband ,kids that lost their father,parents that lost their son,a person that lost his best friend……I pray that God send them strength in their time of need.
Report Post »I did tree work for years and it’s hard and very dangerous.
teddyc73
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 2:16pmA person lost his life in a tragic horrific accident and you are making jokes and all these other people are complimenting you. Says a lot about the type of person you and they are. Classless to say the least. I would expect from Blaze readers. I guess I am wrong.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 5:12pm.
Report Post »Yes it does Teddy. It say‘s we’re all normal and know how to laugh at a joke……
afishfarted
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 6:53pmI bow to you Monkey. excellent
Report Post »Quagaar Warrior
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:17pm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report Post »Is the photo a before or after shot?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quagaar Warrior
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:30pm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report Post »Hey TeddyC73,
That’s nothing compared to the joking that goes on between EMTs, doctors and most people in the medical profession that deal with this kind of thing directly. Of course it’s appalling to them but humor is needed, and used, to vent and to remain sane after dealing with accidents such as this.
Spanky’s joke was funny but nothing compared to the jokes coming out of the medical field.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
abbygirl1994
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:52pmNot even funny… someone died a horrible death and you inhuman people make jokes… What the hell is wrong with you people??????????????
Report Post »Gumbercules
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:19pmWakeing up next to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, after a 3 day bender. Is the only reason I could think of, that would make a guy Put his Head in a Wood Chipper……
@SPANKDAMONKEY
So what you are saying is that you ‘could’ handle waking up next to Pelosi or Barney Frank?
Report Post »Pontiac
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 12:02amYeah, the attempts at humor are exceptionally tasteless. All you lowbrow halfwits are doing is providing fodder for people to detest republicans. It’s like you people never see things from an outside perspective.
Report Post »Severe Starboard List
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 12:12amAs a retired emt, medic and “Corpseman” I have too agree with you Quagaar Warrior!!! Humor saves us from the insanity we dealt with.
Report Post »Gumbercules waking up next to barney, the wokie or nancy would induce me to do a swan dive into a chipper
Pontiac
Posted on January 14, 2012 at 12:54am[Humor saves us from the insanity we dealt with.]
Report Post »What you “Dealt” with, past tense, outside the earshot of the public and the family.
This however is the internet, where things are cached forever and seen by everyone.
And considering the ambiance of the site, maybe we should be a little less jocular around the deaths of others. Just a thought.
Nathaniel Horn
Posted on February 29, 2012 at 4:41pmOh my god. I cut and mill trees for a living and I think that‘s the funniest joke I’ve heard in a month. (Pelosi & Frank too?… ehch!) The guy was probably hung over and not paying attention. Personal responsibility is a subject that Liberals never, ever, ever consider. I wonder why…? Because they have none! They handed theirs over to the state. He probably went very fast. We should all be so lucky. Liberals have become such neurotic, hand wringing little sticks in the mud. They are everything that they say that Conservatives are with intellectual dishonesty at the forefront. We feel bad for the family of this guy but it is their place to grieve not ours. It’s our place to learn something. We learned two things (once again) #1 Liberals are stupid, foppish, incompetent wet rags. #2 Oh, we can‘t really learn anything because the story didn’t give enough detail and it was probably half wrong anyway because that’s just the way the media rolls. Aren’t they almost all Liberal? I rest my case…
Report Post »sensible99
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:12amAccidents happen. Sometimes it’s carelessness. Sometimes it’s just your time to go. Men have been doing manly things since time began. We have hunted dangerous animals for food, sailed across oceans before maps were invented, cut trees to build shelter and strike fire for warmth and cooking. We have done these very dangerous things for thousands of years without a union, a permit or a license. These days if somebody stubs their toe on a base molding we blame the unlicensed contractor who nailed it to the wall.
Report Post »Reload
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:02amI cried because I had no shoes………………………..until I saw a man wearing a cardboard belt.
Report Post »larrylarrylarry
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 12:29pmDonald Trump? So’s the belt will match his hair?
Report Post »GeorgieJo
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 2:57pmI cried because I had no shoes……until I saw the man with no legs.
Report Post »TWO BITS
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:00amTragic story. It only takes one moment of carelessness or misuse of dangerous equipment to result in a deadly outcome.
Report Post »searching for the Truth
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:58amLoose clothing, long hair ,long belts – dangerous around any machine with moving parts – even on a motorcycle.
Report Post »NOTvotingforRomney
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:06amYet companies and the military are being forced to allow Muslims to wear head scarves.
One good thing about the military and muslim head gear – that rag most likely will interfere with the gas mask seal or slow the person with the head gear on enough so they can’t get the gas mask on quickly enough. Bye bye and who cares.
Report Post »db321
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:44amPlus it makes them easier to spot in a crowd – just saying.
Report Post »cranberry
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:32amSo he didn’t die from a wood chipper, he died because his head was pulled from his body by a rope – Painful. So it’s ropes that the government will have a sticker on how to use….. NOT wood chippers.
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:03amOne of my son’s friends coined a saying I love to repeat; After seeing a warning sticker on a Kevlar canoe that said “DO NOT SHOOT! CANOE IS NOT BULLET PROOF” “If there is a warning label on it, some fool already tried it.”
Report Post »Porkchop_sw
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:31pmThat reminds me of the time I was deer hunting (insert liberal PETA crap here) and a farmer had spray painted his livestock with the word “COW” on their sides so the hunters wouldnt shoot them!!!
Ya just cant be too careful! ;-)
Report Post »quicker
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:15amAnother sad note ,that little girl that was tormented by that grown woman lost her battle with her decease.
Report Post »crackerone
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:12amI cried because I had no shoes………….:(
Report Post »Skrewedretiree
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:49pmHey, cry all you want! No shoes, no shirt, no service!
Report Post »Marine Recon Dad
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:47amI’m an arborist, and in California. This is NOT a freak case. This is what happens when you have careless, and untrained, individuals operating machinery that they are not trained for.
This industry has a high accident rate, along with mortality, because every Tom, Dick and Harry that has a chain saw, pickup truck and ladder is suddenly a tree trimmer. There are accidents weekly in this industry, the large percentage caused by untrained individuals.
I’ve shown videos to my crews where 5 year olds, working with their illegal parents, are killed when ingested by the chippers. I’ve shown videos where climbers are tied to the trunk they are cutting, pulled to their death by their own stupidity.
What it comes down to is the consumer hiring these low-cost-cheap-do-it-for-a-song-and-a-dance individuals because they are 1/2 the cost of a professional.
In the end, the consumer gets what they pay for – a lawsuit from the victims family.
…. I guess it is nothing to lose your head over…
Report Post »Pium Vir
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:15amSay Recon Dad….. I’d really like to see those vids. Post ‘em somewhere and get back to me will ya?
Report Post »quicker
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:16amSo true.
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:05amSounds to me like you’re rather disdainful of free market competition…
If your problem is illegals, then be forthright with that in your comments, but don’t use them to push an agenda of government regulations and progressivism because it helps your personal situation.
If I had to make a law based on your comment here, it would be to ban hired contractors from suing property owners over their own negligence…
Report Post »SeekerEmerald
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:20amNot related at ALL to the wood chipper, but your comment about “Every Tom, Dick and Harry” resonates with me. Same deal in the photography business. Every Tom, Dick and Harry that has a $500 camera from Best-Buy is not selling themselves as a wedding photographer. I tell someone I charge $995 and up for a basic wedding photography package, and they say John Smith has a “nice looking camera” and offered to do the “same thing” for $150. I then try to explain that I have over $15,000 in cameras an lenses because a $500 camera just can’t do what professional equipment can.
I see the same things all day long in nearly every business. Everyone that has a color laser printer now thinks they can be a printing company. Everyone with a hammer now thinks they can be a handyman. Anybody with a paint roller thinks they are a painter. People will hire these wannabes, then when things turn sour they say “all photographers are crooks, all handymen break things, all painters do a bad job…”
You get what you pay for…
If you don’t want your front yard full of body parts, hire a professional arborist.
Report Post »caveman74
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 3:12pmI am a gutter cleaner in the northwest. I carry license and insurance, and when customers tell me they found someone cheaper (I am the cheapest insured cleaner in my market) I explain to them if their guy puts a foot through the roof or falls and injures himself that is on the homeowner. I still get plenty of work even though uninsured cleaners can undercut me. There is no law requiring insurance or anything more than a master license for my line of work, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I even keep of few of the cheep guys numbers in my address book for the jobs I don’t want to handle. I get to pick and choose my jobs and maintain a pro image by always having an answer for customers even if I don’t want to touch their house (and I sometimes get a finders fee for the referrals) At the end of the day it was this guys own fault for not knowing how to operate a machine that is capable of turning a tree into dust in a matter of seconds. Both sad and avoidable. If I dont know how to use something dangerous or not I wait till someone shows me how to use it before I turn it on
Report Post »quicker
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:34amChain saws ,woodchippers ,even trees falling the wrong way is a danger.Tree triming is a dangeruos job.Also farming can be dangerous.I have a nephew that almost lost his foot in a grist mill.I know men and kids that have fallen into other farm equiptment,like sllo blowers or into corn choppers ,hung up on pto shafts or hung up in haybinds.I also know a farmer that was chopping corn and didn`t see his dauther untill she was in the corn chopper ,with little girl lived minis her arm and part of her foot.There are many dangerous jobs out there and all it takes is one moment of distraction.I`m deeply sorry for what happened to this man and the grief that his family is going through.Just remember danger never takes a break.I wish all of you a safe day and those of you who have to go to work today please go home safe if only for your love ones.
Report Post »sheria-never
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:32amOh my God…………
This is going under consumer protection
The new guy, Cordray and O’dumbo are now locked away in a room writing 189 pages
Report Post »of new rules and regulations for the wood chip company. Watch them……… they too are going to go out of business.
THXll38
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:19amThis one needs to go on the TV series 1000 ways to die. That said, it seems that they are going to have to raise the number to like 2000.
Report Post »ThePostman
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:16amWe need to stop the manufacturing of all wood chippers until I can find out who’s ass to kick.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:13am.
Note to Self…..
Do not tie a rope around neck, and throw the other end into a Wood Chipper…….
Report Post »TANK3584
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:16amLmao!
Report Post »rambosharley
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:48amThat’s too funny!
Report Post »GumRock
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:57amRound and round the mulberry bush
Report Post »The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to put the rope around his neck
Pop goes the weasel
Paula
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:46amThat’s what I was thinking. Clearly, this guy should not have been operating heavy equipment. RIP.
Report Post »George Patton
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:13amI used to be a climber for a couple different tree companies. The article says he had the rope wrapped around his body. This was a golden rule to NEVER wrap a rope around any part of your body, not even your hands.
Report Post »quicker
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:43amAnd don`t you just hate it when them climbing spikes don`t catch.
Report Post »George Patton
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 1:31pmI hated using spikes because they didn’t fit right and the boss refused to buy ones that fit me. When he refused to replace my tattered 3 foot section that you tie the blake’s hitch knot (I think that’s the name), I was beginning to see a pattern. And when he was in the tree it was time to be slow and cautious, when I was in the tree it was time to rush….so I quit that company.
Report Post »JohnnyBrillcream
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:09amStory is wrong. I just read a press release from the Hospital he’s at. The doctors said he’s doing mulch better……..
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:33amYou‘re reading the false stories the Obama’s putting out about the economy.
Report Post »Reload
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 9:59amBoo! Get off the stage!
Report Post »crackerone
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:06amI came over here, to get cheered up from the EPA BO story.
Report Post »bullfrog1940
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:03amYou know that the government is going to spend billions of dollars on wood chip safety programs.
Report Post »Dirty Harry
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:02amIn the face of danger, some people just lose their head.
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:08amHow to Keep Your Head Whilst All Around You Are Losing Theirs
Report Post »HKS
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:50amI guess i’m not having such a bad day after all.
Report Post »JRHelgeson
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:57amDo you realize how many things have to go right in a single day in order to have nothing go wrong? Give thanks where it is due…
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:46am.
Report Post »That has got to Suck on all levels…….
SLARTIBARTFAST
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:36amYuk!
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:36amIf you run this story, why would you show a picture of just his head? Is that supposed to represent an after picture? THINK!
You Liberals that run the BLAZE don’t think at all do you? You just print the story…
Report Post »Susie
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:53amWhat a ridiculous comment. Give everyone a break and find something else to occupy your time. Get a hobby or maybe even a job and quit bothering us.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 8:10ami know you are busy working at the BLAZE putting up stupid stuff like this. I guess i offended you…oops, too bad. I am a retired veteran, I work a job to stay a little busy and my hobby is to bother people like you!
Report Post »lcovar
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 5:18pmAre you retire because you are old or because your level of intelligence is too low?
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:36amWell blaze, this one went real well with my breakfast !!! Sheese
Report Post »t00nces2
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 7:35amGrinding…. Grinding…. Gone!
Report Post »avgconservative
Posted on January 13, 2012 at 11:45amDidn’t read it… Didn’t read it… DUMB!
http://FlipTheLib.com
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