Groundsman Killed by Falling Tree Section During Tree Trimming Work

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bost, Patrick ; O'Leary, Kathleen ; Schill, Donald P. ; Smith, Emily O. ; Valiante, David J.
• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On November 1, 2000, a 47-year-old groundsman was killed when he was struck by a falling tree section during a tree trimming job. A crew leader was in the elevated bucket of a truck-mounted aerial lift cutting the top of the trunk of an 80-foot-high oak tree when the groundsman walked onto the landing zone (the area under the tree to which branches and debris will fall). He had been told by the crew leader, who was in charge of the site, to remain on a work break at their pickup truck. The crew leader was unaware that the victim was under his work area. He cut away a tree section, pushed down on it, and it fell onto the victim's head. NJ FACE staff concluded that, to prevent similar incidents, the following safety guidelines should be followed: 1. The employer should conduct a job briefing at the start of each job. 2. The employer should establish a written safety and health policy and written company operational policies that include ANSI Z133.1. 3. Employers should become familiar with available resources on safety standards and safe work practices.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Forestry Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Forestry-workers Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 2 Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-performance Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Prevention through Design (PtD) ; Waste Management and Remediation Services
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE00NJ087
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  12 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026700
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-113162
• 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 00NJ087, 2001 May ; :1-12
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  56 - Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2005/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2b1a44ae79855ecc0a8f1dfd794d6ccca13d2fb06d022757b1343523b5a83b341e4547cb8c660b0ab68cf5900e432aa978c34d4486639af0bc86277b6ac82b97
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169236/cdc_169236_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 56.59 KB ]