On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 06:45:33 GMT, Travis
in rec.gardens wrote:

SugarChile wrote:

There was a sad story in the local paper yesterday about a employee of a
tree-trimming firm who died on the job. He was cutting a tree; the tree
fell and hit a stump, and the bottom of the tree "kicked up" and struck him
in the head. There's an investigation underway, but it looks like it was
just a terrible accident, not negligence.

There might not be negligence but it wasn't "just a terrible accident"
either.

Really now?

Please allow how an "accident" is something other than an unplanned for
event.

It comes down to a matter of "how likely" -- as in how likely was it for
the falling tree to hit the stump squarely in order to cause the butt end to
flip? How likely was it for the man to be standing in the correct position
to be hit by the butt-end of the tree?

Of course he could have been more careful. He could have stood several feet
to the side and in so doing he *could* have been hit by a meteor -- much
less likely though.

Cheap accidents are when we do things like pick up a wet glass and it slips
out of our hand and breaks. Fatal accidents are tragic events where we do
not get the chance to say "boy! that was stupid of me!".

FACE