Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,991Records 71,450Employers 85,836Hospitalizations 27,959Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-11-30

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #607291

LEE TREE SERVICE

Event
TREE FELLING, WORK RULES, TREE, FALL
NAICS
000000
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#17768490
Employer profile
LEE TREE SERVICE
Summary number
607291
Report ID
418100

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN TREE HE WAS TOPPING FELL OVER

Investigation abstract

AT 9:34 AM ON DECEMBER 8, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS REMOVING THE TOP OF A 50 FOOT HI GH HICKORY TREE. HE WAS TIED OFF TO THE TREE, USING A CHAIN SAW TO CUT THE TOP. THE TREE FELL OVER, CARRYING EMPLOYEE #1 ALONG WITH IT TO THE GROUND. HE WAS KIL LED. (THERE IS NO MENTION OF THIS BY THE COMPLIANCE OFFICER, BUT IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT, HAD THE EMPLOYEE MORE CLOSELY EXAMINED THE CONDITION OF THE TREE BEFORE C LIMBING IT, HE MAY HAVE DECIDED NOT TO ATTEMPT TO TOP IT. WG)

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 17 M

    Nature of injury
    12
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    5
    Source
    43
    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.