OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14547897
LEE BUSHELING CO.
ROWAN BAY, AK·
Event description
CRUSHED BY ROLLING LOG
Investigation abstract
ON MARCH 19, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS FELLING AND BUCKING TREES ON A SLOPE VARYING LL FROM EMPLOYEE #1, ROLLED DOWN THE HILL AND STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1, KILLING HIM. T HE LOG WHICH ROLLED INTO EMPLOYEE #1 WAS FROM A TREE WHICH HAD PROBABLY BEEN CUT THE PREVIOUS DAY. IT APPEARS THAT VIBRATIONS WHICH RESULTED FROM THE FELLING OF THE TREE MAY HAVE STARTED THE LOG ROLLING. IN GRADE FROM 20% TO 90%. THE HEMLOCK TREES WERE ABOUT 120 FEET IN HEIGHT AND AV ERAGED 20 TO 30 INCHES IN DIAMETER AT THE STUMP. SINCE THIS WAS A NEW CUTTING AR EA WITHIN A SITE CONTAINING ONLY STANDING TIMBER, A STRIP WAS BEING OPENED UP SO THAT TREES COULD BE FELLED INTO AN OPEN AREA. AT APPROXIMATELY 11:30 AM, THE EM PLOYEE FELLED A 27 INCH DIAMETER HEMLOCK WHICH WAS LOCATED ON THE EDGE OF A STEE P BANK AT THE LOWER SIDE OF THE CUTTING AREA. THE TREE FELL CLEAR OF THE AREA, A CROSS A STEEP DEPRESSION, WITHOUT STRIKING ANY OTHER TREES OR LOGS. AT THE SAME INSTANT, A LOG, 36 INCHES LONG & 23 INCHES IN DIAMETER, LOCATED 7 FEET UP THE HI
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 63 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 39
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 4
- 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.