OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14206890
R & O LOGGING CO
BROOKINGS, OR·
Event description
ONE EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN STRUCK BY LOG
Investigation abstract
On November 14, 1985, Employee #1 and another employee unhooked chokers holding employee moved to the right. Employee #1's neck was fractured when he was struck in the back of the neck by the butt of the 8-in. log. The other employee asked the loader operator to call for help. Employee #1 was taken by ambulance to the emergency center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The landing where bot h men were working was clean. The landing was about 80 feet wide. The distance f rom the front of the BU 199 Yarder to the edge of the landing was 57 feet. logs that were being moved by a yarder or loader operator. The two employees wer e able to unhook three of the chokers, but the fourth choker was buried under ot her logs. The two employees moved to an area beside the yarder and signaled the yarder operator to free the other logs. Although both men were facing the logs, the hooked log, a 17-in. at the base fir, came free and swung forward carrying a smaller oak, 8-in. at base, with it. When the 17-in. log stopped, resting its o ne end on the ground, the 8-in. log shot forward with a sling shot action. Both employees moved out of the way, but Employee #1 moved to the left and the other
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 20
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.