OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14520084
TREE FELLING,TREE LIMB,LODGED TREE,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,LOGGING
Event description
EMPLOYEE STRUCK AND KILLED BY FALLING TREE LIMB
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 FINISHED CUTTING SOME TIMBER AND WAS PREPARING TO MOVE ON TO ANOTHER TRACT. BEFORE LEAVING THE AREA HE DISCUSSED, WITH ANOTHER EMPLOYEE, THE PROBLEM OF A TREE WHICH HAD LODGED IN A BEECH TREE ROOTED IN A WET CREEK BANK. AS HE CO NCLUDED HIS DISCUSSION WITH THE OTHER EMPLOYEE AND BEGAN WALKING AWAY, LOUD POPP ING NOISES BEGAN COMING FROM THE BASE OF THE BEECH TREE. APPARENTLY THE EXTRA WE IGHT OF THE LODGED TREE CAUSED THE BEECH TREE'S ROOTS TO TEAR APART, ALLOWING BO TH TREES TO FALL. ONE OF THE BEECH TREE'S LIMBS STRUCK A THIRD TREE, TEARING OFF ONE OF ITS LIMBS AND PROPELLING IT IN THE DIRECTION OF EMPLOYEE #1. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS STRUCK AND KILLED BY THE FALLING LIMB.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 66 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 20
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.