Accident Report Detail
Accident Summary Nr: 202501631 - Tree Service Worker Is Killed by Falling Tree
Inspection Nr | Date Opened | SIC | NAICS | Establishment Name |
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314170234 | 07/29/2010 | 0783 | 561730 | Abbts, Llc |
Abstract: On Thursday, July 29, 2010, Employee #1 was working for ABBTS, LLC (A Busy Beaver Tree Service), in Lutherville, MD. A homeowner had hired the firm to remove two large trees from the backyard and to trim other trees. The two trees were cut down on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, and the job on Thursday, July 29, was to return to the address, clean up the debris, and do the trimming. When the company foreman arrived at the shop that day, he called the company's owner to discuss the work to be done that day. The foreman informed the owner that the customer had asked about taking down an additional tree that was dead; this service was not part of the original contract. The dead tree was located in a large, heavily wooded lot owned by a neighbor to the homeowner who had contracted the work. The job was to fell the dead tree whole and then leave it on the ground in the wooded lot. Both homeowners were in agreement with this additional work. The firm's owner instructed the foreman to proceed with taking down the dead tree and to take his time and do the job safely. The work crew of five employees arrived at the work site at 7:30 a.m. They started cleaning up the debris from the two trees cut down the day before. The foreman and two employees went over to inspect the dead oak tree. One of the employees checked the tree and, determining that it was safe to climb, went up the tree and cut off six branches. There were two branches that he could not cut, because they could have landed on the property owner's fence, damaging it. After cutting the branches he could, he attached one end of a guide rope to the tree. The foreman and the three other employees walked down to another tree, where the other end of the guide rope was attached. The rope was 0.75 inches in diameter and approximately 200 feet long. As an employee started cutting the dead tree, the four other employees were pulling on the guide rope to direct the fall of the dead tree. The employee notched the front of the dead tree (facing the other employees) and then cut the back side. The four employees were standing approximately 10 feet in front of the lower tree where the rope was secured. The employees were approximately 90 to 100 feet away from the dead oak tree, which was approximately 100 to 110 feet tall. After the back cut was completed, the dead oak tree started to fall. At that point, the four employees holding the guide rope realized the tree was not falling in the direction they expected and would strike another tree. The dead oak tree struck a live tree approximately 19 feet, 6 inches up on the live tree, causing the live tree to snap off at ground level and fall. Apparently the base of the second tree was starting to die, though the rest of the tree looked alive. It is thought that one of the limbs that could not be cut off of the dead tree struck the live tree. The second tree was approximately 110 to 120 feet tall. The four employees who had been holding the rope all started running away from the two trees that were falling towards them, through the wooded lot toward the path that led to the roadway. No one actually saw the first tree hit the second tree or the two trees fall to the ground. As the second tree fell and hit the ground, it broke apart in two places. A section of the second tree struck the foreman on his left ankle, and the force knocked him to the ground. As another employee was running, a small branch struck him on a finger of his left hand and nicked his left ear. A third employee stated that a branch had passed in front of him without hitting him as he was running. The fourth employee was struck in the head by the top of the falling second tree. The section of the tree that hit him was one foot in diameter; the force of the blow drove him into the ground, breaking his right leg and creating a hole in his head. He probably died instantly from the force of the tree hitting his head. None of the employees were wearing hard hats. After the trees were on the
Employee # | Inspection Nr | Age | Sex | Degree of Injury | Nature of Injury | Occupation |
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1 | 314170234 | Fatality | Other | Timber cutting and logging occupations |