I'm sure the hat would provide sufficient protection from a tree that size!!lol
I remember back to about 1977, during my first season on the FCV Summer Crew.
We were out the back of Mt Sterling just of the Circuit Road. The job for the day was seed havesting adjacent to an Alpine Ash logging coupe.
About 5 of us "raw recruits" settled down at lunch time with the leading hand adjacent to an Old Alpine Ash. As it was hot (middle of February) some took their hard hats of. Old Joe (the Leading Hand) commented "thats not a really good idea - remember the widow maker". Most of us - except 1, put their hats back on - begrudgingly, as is was pretty sweaty under them.
Right on cue, 5 minutes later -sure enough, woosh - plunk.
A small branch came whistling downwards and embedded itself to a depth of 5 inches into the ground not 20 feet from where we sat. It may have been only 2 or three inches diameter, but it would have made mince meat of any skull. The remaining person without a Hard hat on made a rush for his!!
Ive never gone into Alpine Ash country without a hard hat since, at work or play.
Another incident:
In 1993 we were supervising Pine logging at Delatite Arm. We left the logging crew mid afternoon.
Just entering Mansfield we passed the ambulance going the other way. The usuall "where's he off to in a rush". We soon found out.
One of the loggingcrew team was sharpening his saw on a stump out in the open. He was found deceased after a Pine snapped of at the base (it had been hit by a harvester some time previously and damaged) and fell directly on top of him. He would have been about 20 metres from the tree, the last 5 metres of the trunk got him).
He would not have known what hit him, and no hard hat would have saved him.
its the old storey - what you can see usually wont hurt you - its what you dont that is the killer.
if you work or play in this type of environment i believe in maximizing your return home potential.
