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: Two truck drivers, each driving a loaded log truck with pulpwood that had a large amount of overhang, traveled together during the daytime to deliver their loads to the same mill located in the…
BACKGROUND: On a warm, sunny, summer day in the South, a feller-buncher operator was installing new cutting teeth on a cutting head outfitted on a wheeled feller-buncher. His procedure was to use a 36-inch breaker…
BACKGROUND: On a fall evening in the eastern U.S., an equipment operator was moving a skidder from one logging site to another using a public, two-lane highway. Although it was dark, he planned to drive…
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: Two loaded log trucks from the same logging company were loaded with treelength pulpwood that had overhanging logs. The two drivers were taking their load to the same mill in the southern U.S., so…
BACKGROUND: On a cool, rainy, fall day in the South, a mechanic was replacing hydraulic lines on a tracked feller-buncher. PERSONAL CHRACTERISTICS: The mechanic was in his early 50s and had been a mechanic for…
BACKGROUND: At the beginning of a work shift on a summer morning in the Appalachians, a logging business owner and a co-worker were removing a stick that had lodged between the feller-buncher window and the…
BACKGROUND: On an early winter morning in the Southeast, a skidder driver was returning to his skidder after the crew’s morning safety meeting. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 47-year-old skidder driver had only been employed for one…
BACKGROUND: At the end of the work day in the Southeast, a logging crew and a trucking contractor decided to right an overturned chip van. They used chains and the skidder’s winch cable to pull…
Background: On a summer afternoon in the southern U.S., a forest technician had finished painting a streamside management zone line and walked back to his pickup truck. It was a hot, humid day with a…
