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 #14375406

TREE FELLING,TREE,ELEC UTILITY WORK,STRUCK BY,TREE TRIMMING,UNSTABLE POSITION

Event
TREE FELLING,TREE,ELEC UTILITY WORK,STRUCK BY,TREE TRIMMING,UNSTABLE POSITION
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14375406
Report ID
522500

Event description

EMPLOYEE CRUSHED BY FALLING TREE

Investigation abstract

A four-employee crew was cutting and trimming trees away from an overhead power line. One of the employees cut down a tree. As it fell, the tree brushed an adja cent tree. He examined the area and found it to be clear, so he continued cuttin g the fallen tree. He was working with his back to the previously brushed tree w hen it fell and landed on him. He died of his injuries. The interior base of the stump of the brushed tree was rotted. Although this tree had become unstable, t he outside of the tree appeared healthy, with the bark in good condition and gre en buds on the branches.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 38 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    496
    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.