Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300845146 - Big Creek Lumber

Inspection Information - Office: Foster City District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 2006, Employee #1 was working with a logging crew at a logging site in the Kings Grove area of Woodside, California. He was harvesting redwood trees on a hillside slope of approximately 35 degrees. Employee #1 felled a tree approximately 125 ft long and 27 in. in diameter and then bucked a log section approximately 20 ft long. In the next few seconds he turned his saw off, confirmed that the cut was all the way through the log, and turned to notify a coworker, skidder operator, that it was okay to haul the bucked section down. The remaining tree section struck Employee #1, fracturing his three ribs and collapsing a lung. He was hospitalized at Stanford Hospital for three days. The coworker and others on the crew explained that the procedure employed by Employee #1 to buck the section and felt it was the best and safest approach for that task and that it was consistent with policy for that task.

Keywords: FRACTURE, LUNG, COLLAPSE, LOG, TREE, LOGGER, RIB, STRUCK BY, LOGGING