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Logging Accident Reviews

Started by Woodhog, January 09, 2005, 06:49:01 AM

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sawguy21

Logging injuries and fatalities are on the rise here too. The typical knee jerk reaction is to impose more rules but I believe more training over a longer period is needed to instill a safety attitude. I remember a heli- logging crew member saying "What are they going to do, take away my birthday?" when I pointed out a blatant infraction to him in a friendly manner. He was a know-it-all.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Snag

These stories really make you think.  A couple years ago we had a tree company on one of our construction projects.  The company was owned by the individual that did all the felling and most of the other work to boot.  A giant of a man and as nice as he was big.  Every thing he did was calculated and done as safely as he could.  One Monday we returned to work and were informed that he had been killed over the weekend.  They were doing another job and the man's son found him dead.  The son, working in the vicinity, had lost sight of him and went to investigate when there was no response to his calls.  They dont know exactly what happened, but a 6" dia tree that he was dropping caught him in the back of the head/neck.   He was already gone when the son found him.  Sometimes I wonder if I should be dropping trees at all when something like that happens to a trained, experienced, professional.

Raphael

Quote from: Snag on August 30, 2006, 08:36:42 AM
These stories really make you think... <snip>...  Sometimes I wonder if I should be dropping trees at all when something like that happens to a trained, experienced, professional.
  I hear that!  As an under trained, experienced, semi-professional forums like this are invaluable to me but they sure make you think...

  The same week I finished reading all the posts here in Health and Safety my father decided that we needed to drop a red maple with significant rot in the base where a second stem once resided (I've got two pictures of the aftermath in my gallery).  Of course it leaned ~120° to only open space and he'd spent most of the morning rigging a line single that I only use doubled (it's getting much too old).  It was probably the most nervous I've ever been dropping a tree and I've dropped similiar or worse plenty of times...

  That evening I ordered a new ¾" bull line, a new flip line, better harness w/ fall arrest straps, chaps, etc...
Only thing I forgot was a larger snatch block for the upgraded line.  ::)
... he was middle aged,
and the truth hit him like a man with no parachute.
--Godley & Creme

Stihl 066, MS 362 C-M & 24+ feet of Logosol M7 mill

sawguy21

This is an article re employees and employers liability. Food for thought.
Link to the report
Sorry for the long link, haven't figured out how to title them.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Tom

It's easy, sawguy21, just click on the Globe icon just above the smilies.

sawguy21

Well now, I just learned sumpin :D Thanks Tom
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

rebocardo

The one about the forester being trapped between his truck in drive and the metal gate must have been an awful slow death  :'(

Phorester

Some interesting stats that came out of a recent meeting.  Recarbo, we also discussed the truck-against-the-gate accident. You never think that something so simple can be dangerous.  These figures are from a study at VA Tech and OSHA:

Cause of logging accidents by percent:

Falling Objects;    67%  (tree limbs, trees, logs falling off a truck while loading)

Equipment:          14     (other than chainsaws)

Other;                  13    (lightning, etc.)

Vehicles:               4

Chainsaws:            2   (1/2 of these came from a tree hitting a logger and knocking him into a saw)

Most accidents occured within 2 time periods;  10-11AM and 1-2PM.

Most accidents occured with two experience levels:  less than 5 years, more than 20 years.

Be careful out there gang.


sawguy21

Your last comment is telling. Helicopter pilots with between 600 and 1200 hours flying time get in the most trouble. Just enough time to get cocky and complacent. With any luck, they will scare themselves without wrecking anything.
I sell most saws to inexperienced urban dwellers and some downright scare me. I had an irate customer, a supposed arborist,  return one yesterday after the bar and chain fell off. He is convinced it is a design flaw and the saw, a Stihl MS200T, is inherently dangerous. He is not the sharpest chain in the box so I refunded his money, he really should leave tree work to someone else.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Phorester


Same thing with forest fire accidents.  The experience level thing really hit home with me on that.  I've had over 30 years experience on fires, read all the safety stuff, study the accident reports, take the courses, teach the courses, etc. 

It was an eye opener to me last year when I discovered that I'm in one of the two groups that has the most accidents on fires.   :-[

Texas Ranger

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P63405.asp

On-the-job accidents and homicides claimed the lives of 5,524 Americans last year, down 6.6% from 2001. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the workplace death rate is the lowest it has seen since recordkeeping began in 1992.

Of that 5,524, only 104 were timber-cutters, but those fatalities represent a death rate nearly 30 times that of a typical workplace. Loggers died at a rate of 117.8 per 100,000 workers, the BLS said, with most of them killed by falling trees. The death rate for American workplaces as a whole was 4 per 100,000. (That's among occupations with more than 30 fatalities in 2002 and more than 45,000 employed.)
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Gary_C

Another logger dies under a tree. http://hometownsource.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3763

All it takes is one little miscalculation or moment of inattention, even at 60 years old and a lifetime as an independent logger.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

moosehunter

 Odie is a friend of ours, one of my employees works with him on occation. We are all hoping he pulls through and can keep his leg. Read the story and you can tell what kind of guy he is, he is telling the rescue workers how to get him out!

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/NEWS01/803110325/1002

mh
"And the days that I keep my gratitude
Higher than my expectations
Well, I have really good days".    Ray Wylie Hubbard

submarinesailor

Moose,

Give him our best wishes.  Hope everything works out for him.

Bruce

beenthere

Logging accident in Wisconsin. Chainsaw stuck, so pulled on tree to free the saw, but the tree fell on the pickup and killed the man.

http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/28735559.html
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

SwampDonkey

A tree faller was recently killed in Canterbury, NB when part of a dead tree lodged into the tree top of the one he was felling came loose and struck him in the head. Don't forget to look up.  :-\
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))


badpenny

   Don't know all the details yet, my sister called to say a worker on a job near them was pulled into a machine yesterday while greasing it, the life flight chopper was canceled as not needed. Her husband is a deputy sheriff, and this was heard on their scanner. Details to follow as I get them, but sounds like he was servicing a running machine.


   Update from 10 pm news, a 35 yo was killed near Leader when he was caught up in a conveyor on a wood chipper. Leader is about 5 miles from my sisters house.
Hope and Change, my foot,  It's time for Action and Results!

Black_Bear

This article doesn't tell if the fella was an experienced cutter, but he is 61.

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/136602.html

In an unrelated recent accident, a local logger was severely hurt when a hot saw, which wasn't under power but was slowly spinning, removed his calf muscle and shattered one of the lower leg bones. At last report he is doing OK, but expects a long recovery. The two guys mainly involved are under 30; I'm not sure of their experience levels.

I'm not sure how the first accident happened, but the second one sounds like it was completely avoidable. I don't know why they were working around a spinning saw?

Onthesauk

BREMERTON, Wash. -- A Hansville man died when his safety harness malfunctioned, causing him to fall some 70 to 100 feet down onto a concrete walkway on Wednesday.

Kitsap County sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said the incident occurred at Rocky Point Road NW and NW Montwood Lane at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Aaron B. Waag had been hoisted up by a boom crane, and was trying to reach the limb of a large fir tree when he fell. He was pronounced dead at the scene. (View photos of the scene >>>)

Wilson said Waag, 28, was wearing a safety harness at the time, but "for reasons not yet known, the harness detached from the boom crane hook," causing him to fall to the ground.

The state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the incident.

Waag was a member of Waag Tree Service, a family-owned business based in Poulsbo.
John Deere 3038E
Sukuki LT-F500

Don't attribute irritating behavior to malevolence when mere stupidity will suffice as an explanation.

nsmike

I found this story this morning

Man dies in Chippewa County, Wis., logging accident
Associated Press

Posted: 01/31/2012 12:01:00 AM CST



A logger has died in a Chippewa County, Wis., accident.

Sheriff's officials say two men were logging in county forest land near Bob Lake, just west of Cornell, on Monday afternoon. A skidder slid down a hill and dumped some of the logs they were cutting.

Lt. Rick Starck tells WEAU-TV the men were at the bottom of the hill and were tightening the cables when the skidder rolled down the hill and hit one of them. Stack says steep terrain and snow conditions made it difficult to reach the victim, believed to be in his 30s.

An autopsy is expected to be done today. The other logger wasn't hurt.



Kevin

FATALITY - Safety Alert 2012-01-16 Grapple Skidder

On Monday, January 16, 2012 in the southern interior of British Columbia, an operator of a grapple skidder was fatally injured. The investigation into the incident is still at an early stage and no final determination has yet been made as to the cause of the incident; however preliminary findings has determined that the operator died as a result of being run over by his skidder while he was outside of his machine.


FATALITY - Safety Alert 2012-01-30 Faller

It is with great sadness that we advise that the BC forest industry has experienced its second direct harvesting-related fatality this year. On Monday January 30th, 2012 a faller in the Terrace area was fatally injured while carry out falling-related activities.

Phorester


A couple days ago a Virginia logger was injured while he was cutting a tree.  A large limb fell out of the tree toward him.  Evidently he heard it, looked up and put the running chainsaw up over his head to ward off the blow. My guess its that it was a reflex action.   The saw was slammed down onto his hard hat by the falling limb.  Cut through his hardhat and into his skull.  Last I heard today was he was still alive but in serious condition.

beenthere

Lost a WI tree faller yesterday in Iowa County, when apparently a limb fell on him after he dropped a different tree. Don't know any details, other than was on private land. Nothing about a hard hat either.
Was sad to hear it.

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Ernie

I just heard that last week that a mate of mine for whom I have done some milling was in his bush felling a few trees with his son.  The son left as they were almost done, Warren just wanted to drop one more.  The newspaper wrote it up as he was trapped under his tractor but that is where he dragged himself to wait for rescue.  The tree came back on him and smashed one of his legs below the knee.  Broken in 16 places on the one leg.  It happened around 4 pm and when he didn't show up for his meal the family went looking and eventually found him sheltering under the tractor.  The volunteer fire brigade people carried him out to where the chopper could pick him up; that was around midnight.  They were the same group that attended our fire.  Thank the Lord for the thousands of people who volunteer all over the world, where would we be without them.
A very wise man once told me . Grand children are great, we should have had them first

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