More details needed on the accident at CDC

This letter is in response to your article printed Wednesday, Sept. 27, regarding the incident at the Career Development Center that happened a year and a half ago in which a student cut off the tip of his finger in a wood-splitter.

I found this article too unfairly one-sided with several key factors omitted. Since taking on the teaching position at the CDC, David Dence has managed to dramatically increase the capacity of the Forestry Department and has made it one of the leading high school level forestry programs in the state. He has pursued a hands-on approach to teaching that focuses on practical and business skills and benefits the town and local communities immensely with the projects that he and his students do.

They do countless hours of chainsaw and heavy equipment training, following the Game of Logging program, which is the most extensive and widely used training program in the Northeast.

With all that being said, a wood-splitter is about as simple of a machine as there can be, and is in fact, far less dangerous than a splitting maul. The use of one of these machines, with a little common sense, poses no inherent danger. They can be rented by any homeowner from nearly any rental outlet with absolutely no documented training required, and most of the students have used these machines at home or elsewhere.

Despite what the article implies, the young man had

been verbally instructed on the use of the machine and had been operating it for about three months. These are not complicated machines, and I believe that after about 15 minutes of use, any one of us could be splitting wood like an expert.

This is a perfect example of an accident that no amount of “training,” documented or otherwise, would have prevented.

The school’s insurance policy offered a substantial amount of money to the student that would have gone a long way toward a college education or a down payment on a house. But the student and his parents are now suing for an exorbitant amount of money that is neither justified nor deserved. Does a hot cup of coffee in the lap to the tune of $1 million ring a bell?

MICHAEL D’AGATA

Pownal

Where was his concern over the Walmart expansion?

Mike Bethel wonders why downtown has empty store fronts and blames the Better Bennington Corp.’s efforts. Where was his concern for downtown when he spearheaded the effort to remove the capped size on big box stores?

LIN BOOTLE

Bennington