Background: On a clear, dry, spring afternoon in the southeastern U.S., a logging crew was select cut thinning on a tract with mixed hardwoods and pines. The timber cutter had just manually felled an 18-inch…
Background: On a winter day in the Pacific Northwest, two rigging crew members were setting chokers. One of them went to retrieve chokers from a dropline under a motorized carriage. Incident: As the one crew…
BACKGROUND: On a mid-winter morning in the Lake States Region, a logger began his workday by performing maintenance on the processor head of his recently purchased cut-to-length harvesting machinery. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The logger was in…
BACKGROUND: On a warm summer morning in the southeastern U.S., a loader operator assisted other crew members in preparing a loader for movement to another job site. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The operator was in his forties…
BACKGROUND: On a clear, summer day in the Appalachians, a logging employee was driving (“spotting”) a load of logs from the log deck to a trailer drop site near the end of the woods road…
BACKGROUND: It was mid-morning on a clear, cold December day in the Lake States region. Markets for forest products were strong, and loggers were busy moving their crews into winter timber sales, hoping to take…
BACKGROUND: On a late fall morning in the Northeast, a flatbed truck delivering logging equipment to a site had stopped at the beginning of an icy logging road to put tire chains on. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:…
BACKGROUND: A logging company in the Lake States Region was harvesting timber in the fall of the year. The leaves had changed color and about half of them had fallen. The wind was calm; weather…
BACKGROUND: On a cold winter morning in the southern U.S., two loaded log trucks were parked on a woods road while the drivers secured their loads. The woods road was on a 15% slope, with…
BACKGROUND: On a clear, warm fall day in the southeastern U.S., a logging crew was select cutting grade logs. Most trees were felled with a three-wheeled feller-buncher, but the over-sized trees and timber in the…
INCIDENT: In January of 2018, an operator had a near miss when he pulled over a base machine tethered to a steep slope machine (SSM). The operator had over 43 years of logging experience, including…
INTRODUCTION: On a warm, sunny spring afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, a fatal accident occurred involving a driver assisting another driver in the process of dumping his loaded 53’ trailer at a receiving forest products…
