Danger zones around saw/bad things you have seen happen

[Resonator]

Take Ron's warning and stay away from loaded trucks.  It seems nobody is afraid of them.

Especially standing along side a flatbed when loading and unloading. It doesn't take much to catch a pallet, log, lumber stack, etc. with the tips of a forklift and roll them off.
I ALWAYS wear ear protection when running my mill (plugs or ear muffs). I've already got some ringing, and want to keep what hearing I have as long as I can. Wearing safety toe shoes I have found can prevent a lot of pain too.

[quadracutter222]

My closest call was with the bandsaw mill. Had the cylinder of a hydraulic toe board fail.  What happened was the piston stop broke when I was moving the toe board up, which resulted in it rocketing out of the cylinder.  The problem was on top of the toe board was a 20" square cant 16 feet long.  Launched the thing off the mill towards the operator side.  I am glad I am still nimble-ish.

My two biggest personal rules are:
- any log pile gets mega chocks, and not one climbs them
- when I catch myself making a stumble or mistake its time for a drink or time to quit for the day.

[RobS]

I grew up around sawmills and logging.  It was a big industry around here up until about 2000ish when all the commercial mills started shutting down.  At one point I had 6 commercial mills within 10miles of my house, now only 1 commercial mill run by amish with englishman backing.

There are a lot of logging/woods related accidents.  All the sawmills are circular mills.

1.  Edger operator tailing the head saw crushed his hand.  While waiting for the next slab off the headsaw he put his hand on the steel plate between live rolls that carry material away from the off bearer belt of the head rig.  His glove caught a bur on a roller and the roller sucked his hand into a 1/4" gap between the steel plate and the roller.

2.  Debarker operator doing a repair on the bark removing barn cleaner chain crushed his thumb.  He was removing links of the cleaner chain to shorten it.  He signaled to another person inside the building for a wrench.  That person thought he was asking to turn on the barn cleaner chain.  His thumb was caught between some links and when it tightened, it popped his thumb like a grape.

3.  An employee was speared through the head with an edging from an edger.  He was standing about 15' away from the infeed side of the edger while watching the head sawyer.  The edger operator was feeding boards through the edger as normal.  An edging got caught and kicked back.  It was sent flying out of the infeed side of the edge and went through the guys face.  in one side through the cheek and stuck out the other side through his nasal cavity. They had to cut each side of the edging off, so he could be transported to the hospital in the ambulance.

4.  A previous employee came back to the mill for a visit.  He was talking with the headsawyer near the head saw, while it was running.  The headsawyer turned to look at something on the log deck.  He heard a sound, turned around, and found the visitor laying across the headsaw cut almost in half.  They figure he had a heart attack and fell onto the saw.  Our insurance provided had photos and shared them during his safety visits.  It was unreal.

5.  Same mill.  In the pallet shop an employee lost an arm.  There was a foot switch operated chop saw for cutting pallet runners to length.  Employee bumped the foot switch on accident and lost his arm from the elbow down.

6.  A visitor was riding on the steps of a wheel loader in the log yard while the operator continued working.  The visitor fell and was run over.

7.  Employee was banding a pile of lumber.  As he was cracking the tension up on the metal banding, it broke.  The metal band came back and cut through his eye brow.  Luckily he got 4 stitches, 1/2" lower and his eye ball would have been split.

8.  Head sawyer shattered his knee cap on the carriage track.  A remote light signaled the phone was ringing in the office.  He stopped sawing and hurried to the office.  while crossing the carriage tracks he tripped on the feed cable and landed on his knee on the steel track.  He finished the day with a sore knee.  By end of the day his knee was 2x it's size with swelling.  He went for x-rays after work and found his knee cap was shatter into 6 pieces.

9.  My uncle was running the edger for the day.  At the end of the day he started cleaning the equipment.  He jumped up on the edger to blow off the sawdust.  The edger was not completely shutdown yet.  His foot was sucked into the feed rolls of the edger.  He lost all of his toes on that foot.  He was in ICU for days, in the hospital for weeks.  Became permanently disabled. Fell into alcoholism for the next decade.

10.  An amish neighbor was bucking logs on a landing.  A log rolled over his leg shattering his femur.  He had to get it amputated.

11.  Another uncle was limbing a tree he just dropped.  He cut a spring pole and it kicked back shattering his face.  He spent months with gauze packed in his nasal cavity to hold the shape while healing, his jaw was wired shut.  He ate through a straw for a couple months.

12. My step dad dropping a tree got hit with a widow maker.  The dead branch came down so hard it split his hard hat and knocked him blind.  It took about 30mins before he got his sight back.  He was back to work the next day.

13.   My grampa was cutting up tops in the woods.  We were hauling a load out of the woods.  When we returned, we found him sitting against a tree covered in blood.  He had a kick back with the chainsaw.  It came back at him, coming down it caught his ear and then down into his should and chest.  He had over 300 stitches.

14.  My step dad's employee was dropping trees on a log job.  He slipped retreating from a falling tree and fell on his saw.  Dont ask me how... his butt landed on the saw.  Was a minor cut considering what could have been.  he need a couple stitches and was back to work in a week.

15.  Same employee.  Another chainsaw accident.  This time he caught his foot.  Between the saw chaps and the steel toes he only nicked the top of his foot.  A few stitches and a few days off.

16.  A neighbor logger had a tree he was felling, crushed him.  He was pinned under the tree until his skidder operator found him.  He was in ICU for weeks.  He is alive but is wheel chair bound and is basically permanent vegetative state.


All of these people were doing things that had been doing for years.  Some of the accidents were do to being complacent, forgetting the dangers of the jobs they do.  Some accidents are from being in a hurry.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

  :'( :'( :'(

[thecfarm]

That list is way too long.  :(

[RobS]

That list is way too long.  :(

Yes. But it was spanning 3 sawmills, 5 logging crews and about 25 years.  It just shows that accidents happen even to those professionals with years of on the job experience.
I haven't decided on a theory yet.  Are professionals more likely to have an accident because they forget to respect the dangers?  Are hobbyists less likely to have an accident because they don't do something enough to lose the fear?  What has a stronger effect, complacency or in-experience?

[Sixacresand]

Most of the time when I get splinters, strains, trips and falls, cuts from mishandling blades, hitting sawmill metal is when I am tired or too hot and should have quit sooner.  

[DocGP]

That list is way too long.  :(

Yes. But it was spanning 3 sawmills, 5 logging crews and about 25 years.  It just shows that accidents happen even to those professionals with years of on the job experience.
I haven't decided on a theory yet.  Are professionals more likely to have an accident because they forget to respect the dangers?  Are hobbyists less likely to have an accident because they don't do something enough to lose the fear?  What has a stronger effect, complacency or in-experience?

Just myself, I work around large animals every day of my life, and complacency is my constant enemy.  No the last 200 didn't do that, but nothing says number 201 won't kick your head in.  I try to stay out of the danger zones, but fatigue is right up there too, with injury.
I will try to maintain a healthy respect, hopefully not fear, of the saw.  
Doc

[TimGA]

Great thread, lets be safe..