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 #14443568

KICK BACK,ABDOMEN,TREE FELLING,TREE,STRUCK BY,LOGGING

Event
KICK BACK,ABDOMEN,TREE FELLING,TREE,STRUCK BY,LOGGING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14443568
Report ID
355117

Event description

TREE FELLER STRUCK AND KILLED BY TREE BUTT

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CUTTING DOWN A POPLAR TREE, 18 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND APPROXMATE LY 50 TO 60 FEET TALL. AFTER HE HAD CUT A 9 AND 1/2 INCH NOTCH ON THE LOWER SIDE , HE STARTED TO CUT THE TOP SIDE. (HE WAS WORKING ON A VERY STEEP SLOPE, ABOUT 5 0 TO 55 DEGREES.) WHEN THE UPPER CUT WAS NEARLY COMPLETED, THE TREE STARTED TO F ALL. THE TREE TOP STRUCK ANOTHER TREE, CAUSING THE BUTT OF THE TREE BEING CUT TO KICK BACK TOWARD EMPLOYEE #1. HE WAS STRUCK IN THE LOWER LEFT STOMACH AND KNOCK ED TO THE GROUND. HE WAS WORKING ALONE AT THE TIME. THE SKIDDER OPERATOR HAD TAK EN A DRAG TO THE SAWMILL, ABOUT A 30 TO 45 MINUTE ROUND TRIP. WHEN THE SKIDDER O PERATOR RETURNED, HE FOUND EMPLOYEE #1, STILL ALIVE, AND WENT FOR HELP.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 51 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    1
    Event type
    1
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    496
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    2

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.