Logging Safety

BACKGROUND: On a fall day in the Appalachians, a truck driver was clearing the loose bark and wood debris off his log trailer at a mill woodyard before pulling out to the public highway. Conditions were wet. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The driver was approximately 60...

BACKGROUND: On a fall weekend day in the Appalachians, an individual was cutting firewood from unmerchantable tops and log pieces at a log deck. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The firewood cutter had previous timber cutting experience. He had asked for, and had been...

BACKGROUND: A truck driver was unloading wood chips from his open-top tractor-trailer unit via a movable floor unloading system on a mid-winter day in the Northeast. The trailer had a cross-stability bar centrally located at the top of the trailer. When using the...

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 58-year-old truck driver had more than 30 years of truck-driving experience. He had pulled several loads using this trailer without any problems or incidents. UNSAFE CONDITIONS: The chip trailer was an older, 45-foot wooden-floor model...

BACKGROUND: Near the end of a cold, winter day in the South, a truck driver had nearly completed moving the last piece of equipment for the day to a new tract/location. He began to unbind the machine—a chain flail delimber—on the trailer. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The...

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,...