Aug 4, 2015 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a snowy February morning in northern New England, a cable skidder was being used to pull an empty tri-axle log truck up an icy hill to the log landing. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The skidder operator was 37 years old and had worked in the woods in a...
Apr 13, 2015 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a clear, dry, summer day in the South, an equipment operator was moving a skidder from one end of an old, abandoned woodyard to another. The terrain was flat, and the skidder operator was following an existing, old road. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The...
Jan 8, 2015 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a sunny summer morning in the Northeast, a feller-buncher operator and a fellow employee prepared to complete a minor repair on the feller-buncher. The fellow employee was also an equipment operator but was the designated welder for the small mechanical...
Nov 3, 2014 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: A bulldozer operator was working alone clearing a logging road on an early Spring morning in the Appalachians. The ground was still frozen. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 23-year-old bulldozer operator was co-owner of the construction company that had...
Nov 3, 2014 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a dry, cool, early spring morning in the Appalachians, a timber cutter was felling marked trees in a hardwood stand. The terrain was hilly but not difficult for manual felling operations. The trees had not yet leafed out. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The...
Nov 3, 2014 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a late winter afternoon in the Southeast, a log truck driver was unbinding his load of tree-length pine pulpwood at a mill’s unbinding station. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The approximately 70-year-old log truck driver had many years of driving experience...
