Deer season is here and this is a story that we hear about every year. People don't follow proper safety rules with deer stand and end up getting seriously hurt.

2016-17 Hunting Seasons and Bag Limits
http://www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/Law/Pages/SeasonsandBagLimits.aspx

Seasoned hunter breaks neck, ribs after cutting corners

http://www.ydr.com/story/news/2016/11/17/seasoned-hunter-breaks-neck-ribs-because-he-cut-corners/93649170/

Rodney Markle made a bad decision.It was dark and cold, the first frost of the year, when he and his son hiked to their tree stands to hunt for deer in Jackson Township. Josh Markle's stand was ready to go. But Rodney Markle was using a friend's stand, and it was missing safety equipment. He could have lugged equipment up from another stand.He could have hunted somewhere else.

Instead, he tied his harness to a rope and tied that rope to the tree."I thought, you know, nothing's going to happen," said Markle.Used properly, a safety harness and strap should prevent a hunter from falling to the ground if the stand fails or the hunter slips. Markle had the harness, but not the strap.He'd been hunting since he was 12 and now, at 64, he felt comfortable, confident.

This was supposed to be his big year for archery. The Army and Air Force veteran had just retired and planned to make the most of his newfound free time.For four hours, Markle sat in that tree stand waiting for deer. No luck. Then he stood up.

The tree stand collapsed.The rope snapped — didn't even slow him down — and he plunged 15 feet to the cold, hard ground.Josh Markle heard the crash, then heard his dad groan. He was at a full sprint, running from his own stand 70 yards away, when he saw his father sprawled at the base of the tree.

He had just one thought: Is he alive?Rodney Markle broke four ribs, fractured vertebrae in his neck and back, tore his rotator cuff and fractured his shoulder blade and pelvis. But he was alive.