Large trees and exceptional ice accumulation will take down spacer cable, but with the right design mild to moderate events are handled with higher reliability. Limbs and vegetation can come closer to spacer cable then conventional construction, but large limbs at risk of falling should be removed. In terms of handling severe events like a large tree coming down it is often advised that the messenger be sized such that it will break first before the pole snaps at the base, and likewise where severe ice accumulation may occur the messenger be large enough and the pole thick enough to handle it. The messenger size and pole size is weighed against cost vs a contingency probability analysis. A word of caution though, In applications where the spacer cable is likely to broken, twisted, or encounter very serve conditions repair cost goes up since fixing the spacer cable becomes a complex job with more parts involved.