Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: On a winter evening at a Pacific Northwest mill, a chip truck driver, while collecting a load under a bunker, was walking from the cab to the trailer. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The chip truck driver had only five weeks’ experience on this particular...
Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: A chain saw operator and a skidder operator were working close together during the mid-morning hours on a clear, windy day in the summer. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The skidder operator was considered to be fully trained with 20 years of work experience and...
Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: It was lightly raining on a mid-March day just before noon. A contractor’s employees were using a skidder to remove a hardwood log from a loaded log truck. A mechanic had been operating the winch of the skidder and began to exit the cab. PERSONAL...
Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: A helicopter drip-torch burning operation was set up in a wide turnout of a main logging road in the Inland West. The operation included a fuel truck, a batch truck, and the supporting ground crew. The weather was clear with good visibility. The incident...
Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: A tractor-trailer unit loaded with logs was headed northbound and approaching a highway junction when the driver noticed a Jeep traveling westbound toward the same intersection. It was late afternoon on a cold, sunny winter day in the Rocky Mountain West....
Apr 10, 2012 | Logging Safety
BACKGROUND: A grapple skidder operator was skidding timber from the woods to the landing one day in the South. Weather was not a factor in the accident. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The logger was 37 years old and in good health. He had been employed by his company for...