So this might be a bit lengthy of a post, but here goes..
As many of you know, I work for my town highway department. Yesterday we got sent out to do some roadside tree and brush work. It was all ground work, so we just had one man cutting. Pretty run of the mill stuff..
Well, we were about an hour into the day doing things as we always do, one man cutting and four of us dragging the brush and smallish trees to the chipper. I observed the cutter in the edge of the woodline cutting small (appx 1") brush as I went in to gather up some other smaller pieces to feed into the chipper. As I bent down to grab them, BAM! I got pummeled into the ground with great force. People throw the cliche around that "it felt like I got hit by a truck" and well, that's exactly what it was like. What happened was that I failed to realize that my friend/coworker was cutting down an oak tree that was about 8" at the stump and probably 25-30 feet tall. And as I moved in it hit me when it fell, about 20' from the stump. I was bent down picking branches when it hit me on the left side of the head, then smashed my shoulder and left forearm. I rolled and sprang back to my feet as quickly as I could and moved out of the area, not knowing if more was coming. As I moved away and took a knee as I was in too much pain and shock to remain standing, I noticed my hardhat and safety glasses were gone, and my left shoulder was hurting real bad. I thought I had finally broken my first bones as at that time and for a couple minutes afterward my entire left arm was completely dead, numb, tingling and I couldn't move it or my fingers. After a couple of minutes I was able to move my left arm again and get back to my feet. Of course by this time work was stopped and my coworkers were tending to me to discern the extent of my injuries. And at this time I was spitting up small amounts of blood from the back of my throat, but thankfully that subsided fairly quick. We then gathered up my missing gear and found my hardhat laying about 20 feet from where I was when I got hit, and the left earmuff got broken off the hardhat was 10 feet from that.
It was decided that I should be taken to the ER to get checked out, especially since I had spit up some blood. They ran scans on my head to check for concussion, and X-rays on my left shoulder as the tree struck my shoulder right on the boney part right on top. All was found to be OK, no broken bones, no concussions.
I am thankful that my employer/boss doesn't cheap out on our PPE, and I am thankful he makes sure we all wear our PPE. If I had not been wearing my hardhat I'm pretty sure that I would still be in the hospital today with a serious head injury. It's amazing the amount of force a "small-ish" tree has when it's falling to the ground. Wear that PPE my friends! It may be uncomfortable at times, but injuries are more uncomfortable every time!
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And I agree, if I was struck squarely on the head it would likely have been worse.. Especially since I was bent down and it would have likely hit the back of my head. 
Originally Posted by Jd110
