Timber Cutter Killed by Falling Tree Limb – South Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  This report concerned the death of a 56-year-old male timber cutter who was struck by a falling tree limb. The employer was a small logging company with three employees in operation for 44 years. The victim had worked for the employer for 36 years. The victim felled a forked poplar tree and as the tree fell one fork split in half and lodged in a standing tree while the other fell to the ground. A skidder operator pulled the lodged fork from the standing tree. After the lodged fork had been freed from the tree, the victim was not seen by the operator of the skidder who climbed onto one of the skidder tires to see better. He observed the victim in a kneeling position, face down against the felled tree. A tree limb had struck the victim at the base of the skull, breaking his neck, and causing a basal skull fracture. It is recommended that employers ensure that when lodged trees are being removed by mechanical means, observers remain in the clear, a safe distance from the operation.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Forestry Nervous System Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis FACE-95-04 Forestry-workers Head-injuries Logging-workers OSHA Region 4 Safety-research Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Logging
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9504
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  South Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00229122
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB96-106513
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1994/12/15
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f36018d6293b7b8332b4d6d30748cc7cad442c06dacbcfab0cd3ec65dc6deefad3d7873352aa0b027a9301f2bfe3598dd1190e7708c25cc74ee9d98255ba6bd1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167450/cdc_167450_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 256.34 KB ]