OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #170239800
CHEST,HEAD,UNSECURED,WORK RULES,GUY,LOGGER,TREE SECTION,STRUCK BY,FALLING OBJECT,LOGGING
Event description
Employee dies when struck by falling tree section
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 and his partner had rigged a small crooked hemlock for the purpose o inline lead block and haulback lead block. The slinger choked 2 small alders, wh ich hung up. It is assumed that the jerk at the top of the tree snapped the top out because of the inadequate guy lines. The top came out and fell straight down , hitting Employee #1 in the head and chest and killing him. The piece of the to p that fell out was 10 ft long and 12 in. wide. This accident could have been av oided with proper setup of the yarding equipment. f logging a small corner of property for a home owner. The tree was initially 70 ft tall and 12 in. wide at the point where the rigging was applied. The week be fore the accident the top was accidentally pulled out, almost striking Employee #1. The tree was rerigged, this time being approximately 60 ft tall. There were only 2 guy lines behind and 2 in front and no buckle guys. Two of the guy lines were 5/8 in. and 2 were 3/4 in. and the mainline was 7/8 in. with 1/2 in. haulba ck. There was a severe amount of stress put on the top of the small tree. The ya rder sat directly beneath the top of the tree, creating a severe bight in the ma
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 37 M
- Nature of injury
- 3
- Part of body
- 9
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 24
- Occupation code
- 496
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 6
- Task assigned
- 1
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