September is designated as tree stand safety month by the Virginia-based Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation. Be smart about it and never throw caution to the wind when fooling around with tree stands, regardless of what month it is. One slip in safety etiquette is all it takes for a good day to turn tragic.
That’s good advice from TSSA president Glen Mayhew of Bedford, VA. Think of Mayhew like the pied piper of tree stand safety nationwide.
An assistant provost at Radford University in Roanoke, Mayhew also is passionate hunter and former firefighter/ paramedic who teaches hunter education classes on the side. It’s the perfect blend for sounding the trumpet on a topic that can’t be talked about enough this time of year.
Texas’ Archery Only deer season gets underway Sept. 28 and the general season begins Nov. 2. Hunters are busy doing prep work these days. Hanging tree and ladder stands are a big part of the gig.
Sadly, accidents involving tree stands are the leading cause of injury and death among deer hunters nationwide. Most occur when a hunter is either ascending to, descending from or entering the stand and something happens that causes the hunter to fall.
Each year, many archery and rifle hunters across America suffer broken arms, legs, backs and necks by falling from tree stands. Some recover. Others don’t. Death or serious injury are distinct possibilities when you come tumbling down from 20 feet above ground.
Mayhew’s message about tree stand safety is as truthful as they come.
“Hunting from tree stands is a perfectly safe way to hunt and every fall is preventable, but you’ve got to do the right thing and follow some basic safety guidelines in the process,” he said.
Mayhew has been researching tree stand mishaps for years. He is somewhat of a walking encyclopedia on the topic. He says most accidents can be attributed to one of four common causes:
• Loss of grip, balance or slip
• Strap breakage or strap coming loose
• Human error (such as failure to secure a bolt or pin gate on the stand)
• Ladder or step failure.
He added that hunting stand accidents happen most frequently with lock-on styles. “Climbers and lean-to ladders are pretty much neck and neck,” he said.
Mayhew is so passionate about safe tree stand hunting that he had a heavy hand in founding the TSSA in 2016. He also helped develop a tree stand safety awareness campaign called the ABC’s of Tree Stand Safety. The rules of the road are simple: A.) Always remove and inspect your equipment before you use it.
B.) Buckle your full-body harness securely each time you put it on.
C.) Connect to the tree using some sort of safety rope before your feet leave the ground.
“Any time you are elevated off the ground you have the risk of falling,” said Mayhew. “But you won’t fall to the ground when wearing a safety harness that’s properly attached to a safety line.”
Justin Lanclos of Sulphur, LA., is veteran hunter who is well aware of the importance of playing it safe when messing around with tree stands.
In July 2016, Lanclos says he got careless and complacent while exiting a lock-on stand he had just hung at his deer lease in southern Louisiana. Wearing no safety harness or lifeline, he fell 22 feet from a live oak tree when the tree limb he was holding onto snapped.
Luckily, he lived to tell about it. The hunter was accompanied by his then 9-year-old son, Carter.
“It was about noon, getting really hot and the mosquitos were eating us up,” he recalled. “I remember part of the fall — hitting the ground and the feeling of the thud. But what I remember the most is waking up with my son pulling at my shirt yelling ‘daddy, daddy, please wake up!”
Lanclos was pretty sure he had landed on his feet. His face was bloody, but he couldn’t feel his legs.
“My left leg had crumbled beneath me — at first I thought I’d broken my back,” he said. “I felt for my cell phone but then I remembered I’d left it on the 4 wheeler that was probably 300-400 yards away. At that point I just laid there tried to calm Carter down. My message to him was that I was going to be fine, but I really didn’t know for sure at the time.”
Lanclos attempted to crawl, but knew right way he wasn’t going anywhere. The pain was excruciating.
“At that point, I became cheerleader and coach for my son,” he said. “I told him ‘buddy, we aren’t getting out of here, much less getting a Gatorade or water, unless you are able to get to the 4-wheeler and get the phone.”
There was no defined trail leading back to the ATV — just a dense maze of pine saplings and brush that was intimidating to the frightened youngster.
“It was quite the ordeal for him, but Carter eventually got to the 4-wheeler and made it back to me,” he said. “I tried to get on it, but couldn’t. That’s when I called a friend who knew about where we were at.”
Hours later, the men rolled into the hospital emergency room in Sulphur. X-rays showed Lanclos had a severe break in his left leg and soft tissue damage to both ankles. Additionally, the ball of his left hip was shoved up into his pelvis.
Lanclos underwent emergency surgery, but it was only the beginning of a rigorous and painful recovery process that is still ongoing. Four surgeries and eight years later, he knows his body will never be the same.
“I’m probably 85 percent, but that’s alright,” he said. “I’m able to walk, play basketball with my kids and I’m still able to hunt. I’m thankful for that.”
The hunter admits the good fortunes have come at a tall price, though.
Never mind all the pain, suffering and anxiety. Lanclos says the greatest impact of his accident has been the horrific imprint that was placed in his son’s mind on that fateful day, and the many nightmares he has endured because of it.
“I was very hard on myself about that for a very long time,” he said. “I had to work through a lot of guilt over the what ifs. What would Carter have had to do by himself that day if I had died out there? That was an insanely selfish and complacent decision on my part to put my son in that position. He could have had to fend for his life that day. Instead, he had to save mine. He is my hero.”
Lanclos says the take home message from his story is to never put safety second when you are fooling around tree stands of any kind.
“I challenge anyone who is not exercising 100 percent safety to do it,” he said. “My accident was completely preventable. Everyone else’s tree stand accidents are completely preventable. If you are locked in from from before the time you leave the ground until you hit the ground again, what happened to me and others is 100 percent preventable.”
Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo . com.
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