Treestand safety- accident

[J.ALLEN.IA]

My dad's Friend (60ish) was in a tree stand 12 feet up last weekend. All of the sudden the straps/chains broke on the stand and he fell to the ground. Pretty hard fall, he fell on his shoulder. Doc's were saying if he was only 3 inches over on his shoulder/head more head would have died. What does it take for people to understand the necessary precautions? I believe every new stand comes with a harness (they're not the greatest, but would save your life). The scary part is I had accumulated 5-6 of them, and just got rid of most of them as I bought a hunter safety system.

[camoman1]

Sorry to hear about the accident...hope he is doing well.

I wear mine all the time while Im up there. I used to install and work on billboards so I am used to being up to 175' up in the air, but I still wear my harness everytime. Even though the hunting style one seem chincy compared to a real harness, they are better than nothing!!

Wear 'em guys and gals!!

[sskybnd]

i can relate to what you are saying, fell out of mine oct 1st of 04, i was up 20 foot, i did however break my wrist in 3 places and three ribs, just glad it didnt kill me, i think most people that dont use the harness were just like me, ive hunted for more the 30 years and never thought i would ever fall from a stand, i can atest to the use of needing to use one ever time you climb into a stand, but another thing that one should know is how to use one the right way, i had a friend named vic that fell from his stand wearing a harness last year in ky, he had the stape to low on the tree and when he fell couldnt get back up on the stand and being lower than the stand, he's weight coused him to sufficate.