Logging Safety

BACKGROUND: On a dry, sunny, fall day in the Appalachians, a timber cutter was limbing his way up a large maple tree that he had just felled. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 49-year-old, experienced timber cutter was fully trained. He was wearing safety chain saw pants,...

BACKGROUND: On a summer Saturday morning in the Southcentral region, a flatbed lowboy tractor-trailer rig was transporting a skidder and a feller-buncher on a four-lane highway. The lowboy driver approached a railroad bridge that extended over the four-lane highway at...

BACKGROUND: The operator of a stroke-type delimber in the Northeast was conducting maintenance to his machine on the log landing. Stroke-type delimbers require periodic sharpening of knives in the field due to normal wear. Standard practice is to use a power grinder....

BACKGROUND: On a wet spring day in the Appalachians, a logging contractor operating a harvester-processor was exiting the cab to replace a damaged saw bar. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 35-year-old operator had two years of logging experience. He had attended the...

BACKGROUND: On a spring afternoon in the Southeast, a contract welder, assisted by a logging crew mechanic, was repairing cracks on a woods chipper frame. During the repair process, they noticed a fuel leak on the chipper’s diesel fuel tank. After completing the...

BACKGROUND:  A logging crew in the Southeast was clearcutting a tract and using a whole-tree chipper to process treelength pulpwood.  After the crew had operated the machine for two weeks, the flail chains needed to be replaced; changing out the chains safely required...