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Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Reporter
A MAN survived with just an arm fractured after plunging 30 metres while trimming a pine tree in the Bulawayo City Centre. Kenneth Munhuti, 33, from Sizinda, was trying to prune the giant tree at the Bulawayo Club shortly after 2PM on Wednesday when he lost grip and went crashing 30 metres below.
“I’m very lucky to survive such a fall. I can’t really explain what happened,” Munhuti said from his hospital bed at the United Bulawayo Hospitals.
“My arm fractured twice and my shoulder dislocated. But I’m feeling much better as I can eat and I’m no longer coughing blood.”
A huge crowd gathered at the corner of 8th Avenue and Fort Street immediately after the incident. Many feared he would die as an ambulance whisked him away.
Munhuti remembers trying to adjust his safety rope — and not much else after that.
“I had just finished cutting the top branch and as I was trying to adjust my safety rope, the branch I was balancing on snapped and I lost grip,” he said.
He landed on some branches he had cut below, and was fortunate that it was lawn and not a hard surface. The self-employed Munhuti said he was no stranger to cutting tall trees, insisting that his reputation got him the assignment.
He said: “I was given the assignment after the previous contractor failed to do the job and handed over the job to me.”
Online Reporter