Tree Feller Dies After Being Struck by Limb of Tree Being Felled in West Virginia.

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  West Virginia Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program (West Virginia FACE) ; West Virginia University. Center for Rural Emergency Medicine ; West Virginia. Department of Health & Human Resources
• Description:
  On December 1, 1998, a 25-year-old male tree feller (the victim) died of injuries sustained when he was struck on the head by a limb which had snapped off of the tree he was felling as the tree impacted the ground. The victim was felling trees on terrain with an average 35% slope. He was in the process of felling a yellow poplar. The poplar was approximately 24 inches in diameter at breast height and 90 feet tall. The tree was non-typical in that it had a large, 65-foot-long limb which was 18 feet above the ground. The limb was approximately 6 inches in diameter at the point of attachment and was oriented 90 degrees to the tree's trunk. The limb was pointing directly downhill, which was also the direction of the felling. After making the final cut, the victim retreated approximately 21 feet from the stump at an angle close to 45 degrees uphill from the cutting side. The victim was hit on the back of the head with the tapered end of the limb as it flipped back uphill towards the logger. A dozer operator discovered the victim shortly after the incident and notified the owner. The owner administered first aid and CPR. Another worker ran to a local residence and contacted EMS. The victim was life-flighted to the local trauma center and died the next day. The WV FACE Investigator concluded that, to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences, employers should: 1. Ensure that tree fellers properly evaluate the timber and the area around the timber to be felled so that potential hazards can be identified and appropriate control measures implemented. 2. Develop, implement, and enforce a written safety program which includes, but is not limited to, training in hazard identification, avoidance, and abatement. 3. Designate a competent person to conduct frequent and regular site safety inspections.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Forestry Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Forestry-workers Injuries Injury-prevention Logging-workers OSHA Region 3 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-personnel Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE99WV005
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  West Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  6 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028649
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-101698
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 99WV005, 1999 Jul ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  West Virginia Department of Health & Human Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1996/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d2e3f24dc141dd676c79734d7770d2c01bf696165ecd838feb99f983a035babaffd23a26816e4bc9a1fdb52be3b63047712802ade155429eb5e5c6c1d2fbb4db
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166481/cdc_166481_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 194.80 KB ]