Abstract: Employee #1 and a coworker, both choker setters at a yarder side logging operation, had just changed roads for the yarder. The skyline was slack. The employees were opposite the side that the skyline would pull toward when tensioned. Employee #1 and the coworker signaled for the skyline to be tensioned and it moved toward the road and away from them. The skyline hit a small standing tree, which bent away from the two men. When the cable was released, the tree sprang back. The top shot toward the employees, who dove to the ground about 80 feet from the tree. Employee #1 was struck on the top of his head and back by the approximately 10 to 12 inch diameter by 20 foot long tree top. Although the employee's tin hard hat looked like a crumpled beer can, he sustained no head injuries. Employee #1 did sustain broken ribs and fractured vertebrae. No accident-related violations were found during the investigation.