Timber Cutter Dies After Being Struck by a Falling Snag - West Virginia: FACE 93-10

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  The case of a 24-year-old male timber cutter who died after receiving a blow on the head by a falling snag was described. The man was employed by a logging company that had 17 employees and logged mainly for saw timber. There was no written safety program nor safety policy. However, the foreman did provide safety talks and impromptu safety inspections. The task was to selectively cut a variety of timber on a 300-acre tract of land in a mountainous region of the state. After returning from lunch, the victim felled an 80 to 90 foot tall, 18-inch diameter poplar tree using a 24-inch bar chain saw. As the poplar fell, it apparently struck a snag about 10 feet away. The snag was about 35 feet tall and 6 inches in diameter. It broke off about 4 feet above the ground, falling toward the victim, striking him on the back of the head, fracturing the first vertebra in his neck. It is recommended that workers properly evaluate the area around timber to be felled so that potential hazards can be identified, and control measures implemented. Employers should develop, implement, and enforce a written safety program which includes worker training in recognizing, avoiding, and abating hazards. Employers should designate a competent person to conduct regular safety inspections.
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Forestry
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • OSHA Region 3
  • FACE-93-10
  • Forestry
  • Forestry-workers
  • Accident-analysis
  • Safety-research
  • Lumberjacks
  • Logging-workers
  • Traumatic-injuries
  • Lumber-industry
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  All ; Logging
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9310
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  West Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• 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
• Volume:
  1993
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00213737
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB93-214062
• 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:
  1993
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS 2022)
• Start Date:
  1992/12/03
• Resource Number:
  FACE 93-10
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167514/cdc_167514_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 274.13 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3f57c400090775b746692a4abd43fc649762bdbe34242b6ba088d29b5d10d904ad06c3438638eb9ad6d893116f2dd71cd7bcb171c1c95c2497765dc7c9b31864