OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14497002
CHEST,HEAD,TREE FELLING,TREE LIMB,ABRASION,NECK,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,LOGGING,CONTUSION
Event description
Employee killed when struck by falling limb
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was the only log cutter on a small logging crew. He had eaten lunch base of a tree that Employee #1 had cut. The limb apparently had fallen as the tree moved, striking Employee #1 on his head and neck, killing him. The pines in this area had been cut over last year and there were many broken limbs visible among remaining trees. and returned to the woods alone to fell a few more trees. The owner and other me mbers of the crew heard his chain saw running and could tell that Employee #1 wa s cutting. A short while later the skidder operator went looking for enough logs to complete a truck load. As the skidder operator neared the area where Employe e #1 was cutting, he observed the chain saw sitting across a small log. He then saw Employee #1 lying face down about 25 feet away. Investigation revealed a kno t behind Employee #1's left ear, a bruised neck, and abrasion/contusions of the upper left chest. A limb about 5 in. in diameter and 12 ft long was found at the
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 31 M
- Nature of injury
- 3
- Part of body
- 20
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 39
- 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.