Tree Excavator Killed Using Skid-Steer Loader and Tree Shear Attachment

Details

• Personal Author:
  Johnson, Wayne ; Rautiainen, Risto
• Corporate Authors:
  Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Program (Iowa FACE) ; University of Iowa. College of Public Health. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Description:
  In the winter of 2001, a 25-year-old self-employed tree excavator was fatally injured while using a skid-steer loader equipped with a tree shear attachment. He was working on a hillside, clearing land of small trees. While cutting a large branch of a tree, the weight of the falling branch tipped the loader forward on top of the tree stump, pinning him against the seat. The hydraulic shear had two horizontal blades that came together to cut trees up to 14 inches (35 cm) in diameter. The trunk of the tree was about 28 inches (70 cm) in diameter at the base, larger than the capacity of the shear. It branched out about three feet (1 m) above ground into three smaller limbs. He had cut branches from the sides and was finishing cutting the last branch, with his loader on the uphill side, facing directly downhill. The attachment was raised up to approximately 4 foot (1.2 m) height, where the branches fanned out. When he finished the cut, and while it was falling downhill, it momentarily transferred enough weight to the front of the shear that it tipped the skid-steer loader forward. The loader landed nearly upside down on top of the stump, which entered the cab area and crushed the operator against the back of his seat. The man was killed instantly. When rescue arrived, the machine could not be started, and airbags and a winch were needed to move the loader. Recommendations based on our investigation are as follows: 1. Skid-steer loaders and their attachments should be used as recommended by manufacturers, not exceeding their capacity. 2. Machines using tree shear attachments should have a barrier on all sides of the operator station to protect from tree limbs and other objects. 3. Manufacturers of tree shears and similar attachments should warn operators about using the attachments in a raised position, and working on sloping ground.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Equipment-design Equipment-operators Equipment-reliability Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-guarding Machine-operation Machine-operators OSHA Region 7 Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Construction
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE01IA042
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; OSHA Region 7
• 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:20028341
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-107904
• 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 01IA042, 2002 Jun ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Performing Organization:
  Iowa Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:767541094ebcb29492c02ea6e983fbee405eae6d38a3e1860732ec99b79bb5c25eae14ba4b0c421d85aec3afb33e821c8bdd497dbccb549cea321ffdf9019c55
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166778/cdc_166778_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 559.47 KB ]