Inspection Detail

Inspection: 105276992 - Steven L Harpole

Inspection Information - Office: Bend

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, a log truck owner/operator, was standing near the left front wheel and the oil cleaner of another truck. He was engaged in conversation while the truck was being loaded with logs. The truck had been loaded to the top of the stakes and required only two or three more logs to finish the load. To clean the skid chute on the opposite side, the load operator gathered up five lodgepole logs in the grapple of the DICO hydraulic log loader and started to swing them over the partially loaded truck. He was going to place them in an area where five or six other lodgepole logs were already lying about 20 ft from the loading chute driver's side, waiting to be cleaned by the knotbumper. As the grapple swung over the load, a 20 ft long short end dropped out of the grapple and hung on the trailer stake and the ground on the shovel end. Two other logs, 55 ft and 71 ft long, also dropped from the grapple and landed on the ground in an angular position. After it had slid down, the log hung on the stake and extended forward to the front of the load. Employee #1, apparently fearing the rest of the logs were going to fall out of the grapple, bolted toward the logs that were on the ground. As the loader operator set the remaining three logs down, a piece of a dead snag's top (3 1/2 in. on the big end by 2 in. on the small end by 5 ft long) flipped out of the pile and struck Employee #1 in the face and forehead. He died at the scene.

Keywords: FOREHEAD, TREE SECTION, STRUCK BY, FACE, FALLING OBJECT, LOGGING