Logging Injury Alert: Motorized Carriages Involved in a Fatality and a Serious Hand Injury

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries
• Description:
  A 48-year-old chaser, with over eight years of experience, was killed when he was struck in the head by a 1,200 pound motorized slack-pulling carriage. According to the DOSH inspection, the victim was in the process of reaching for or unhooking a choker when the carriage either fell towards the ground or slid back down the skyline. The DOSH investigation found that the carriage's skyline clamp was not properly adjusted. The improper adjustment of the skyline clamp could not be ruled out as a contributing factor in allowing the carriage to fall. In a separate incident, a 41-year-old chaser with over 15 years of experience nearly had his left hand amputated when it was crushed between a log and a choker. In this incident, the tower operator, using a swing yarder, had just brought the turn in and slacked the logs down. The logs started to slide back down the hill, so the processor operator reached out and held the logs in place, to allow the victim to unbell the chokers. When the victim went to unbell the choker, he placed his hand between the cable and the logs. As the victim was holding the cable, the skyline clamp on the motorized carriage slipped and the carriage started to go back down the skyline. When the carriage started traveling down the skyline it tightened the slack on the choker, crushing the victim's hand between the choker cable and the logs. The skyline carriage slipped due to not having enough shims in place to hold the skyline clamp in place. The victim had his pinky finger amputated, and has permanent limited function of his ring and middle finger. The victim has been out of work for the last five months and will never be physically able to return to his job as a chaser. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Forestry Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Equipment Operators Fatalities Forestry Workers Heavy Machinery Injuries Logging Industry Logging Workers
• Publisher:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060861
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 92-03-2013, 2013 Apr; :1
• Email:
  Eric.Jolonen@Lni.wa.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Logging injury alert: motorized carriages involved in a fatality and a serious hand injury
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c27ca852408e81cc9ef3db83b3eaf48af16d2070e46990cfa9a9559d348d7322a477e94534e6f7a4b5d276ce276785c8c1ffa002ae4b139c6be069aa8b4da519
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224648/cdc_224648_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 267.66 KB ]