OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14232144
ASPLUNDH TREE EXPERT COMPANY
BANDYTOWN, WV·
Event description
EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN STRUCK BY SPLIT TREE
Investigation abstract
On May 8, 1989, Employee #1 was cutting down a red oak tree having three indepen dent leaders growing approximately 9 feet from ground trunk level. Two smaller l eaders were cut and the third one was being back cut, after notching, when the t ree split as a result of its heavy weight at the top and the fact that it was le aning. Employee #1 performing the cutting operation was tied in by a safety clim bing rope and a safety strap. When the tree split it came down and struck Employ ee #1 who could not move out of the way due to double tie off which pinned him i n.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 23 Male
- Nature of injury
- Other (21)
- Part of body
- HEAD (13)
- Accident type
- STRUCK BY (1)
- Source of injury
- VEGETATION (39)
- Occupation
- Occupation not reported (999)
- Human factor
- MALFUNC IN SECURING/WARNING OP (4)
- Environmental factor
- FLYING OBJECT ACTION (5)
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.