105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14312326

WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,CRUSHED,TREE,INATTENTION

Event
WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,CRUSHED,TREE,INATTENTION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14312326
Report ID
213100

Event description

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYEE CRUSHED BY TREE ROOT SECTION

Investigation abstract

ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1986, EMPLOYEE #1 PUSHED A MAPLE TREE OVER WITH A MODEL 977 CAT TRAXCAVATOR. HE THEN BACKED THE MACHINE AWAY TO ALLOW A LABORER TO CUT THE TREE INTO SECTIONS. EMPLOYEE #1, FOR UNKNOWN REASONS, DISMOUNTED HIS MACHINE AND ENTERED THE TREE'S ROOT HOLE. THE HOLE WAS 10 FEET LONG, 7 FEET WIDE AND 3 FEET DEEP. WHEN THE LABORER CUT OFF THE BOTTOM SECTION OF THE TREE, THE ROOT SEC TION ROLLED BACK INTO ITS HOLE, STRIKING AND CRUSHING EMPLOYEE #1.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 54 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    2
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.