Inspection Detail

Inspection: 77177.015 - Davey Tree Surgery Company

Inspection Information - Office: Boise Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 2:00 p.m. on June 28, 2011, a crew leader was the sawyer for the tree falling operations. Employee #1 was the line tender/ manual rope puller. The rope would be placed in the tree about ? of the way up. The line tender would then go in the direction of the intended tree fall and pull on the rope until the tree started to fall. Then the line tender would retreat uphill from the fall. No mechanical devices were being used on the day of the accident. The crew was working on a steep grade. The tree was standing nearly straight, but had backward weight due to limbs. The crew placed the line in the tree and the line tender took the line at an angle uphill away from the power lines. The line tender began pulling on the tree while the sawyer made the face cut and then the back cut. When the sawyer was making the back cut, the tree settled back on the saw and bound it in the tree. The line tender was pulling the rope and having trouble gaining footing and fell several times. The sawyer left the trunk and went to help Employee #1 pull the tree. When they began pulling the tree, they were uphill at an angle from the intended fall of the tree. After they pulled the rope several times they slid down about even with the intended fall of the tree. Both were out of breath and so they made a round-turn and hitch on the tree they were standing next to. This tree was 70 feet from the stump. The sawyer/crew leader stated that he thought they would not be able to pull the tree down. He said that they came up with a plan to use the tree they were standing near to pull the rope around to get leverage. When the tree fell they would retreat straight downhill. With the rope still hitched to the tree, they reached out to pull the rope. The tree started to lean in the intended direction of the fall, which was in the direction of the tree the men were standing behind. They kept pulling on the rope until the tree began to fall on its own. The sawyer began to retreat downhill, he then reached up to grab Employee #1 to pull him down hill too. Employee #1 allegedly pulled away and took a step uphill where the tree struck him in the head and killed him. Three factors contributed to this accident. The first is that the crew was not far enough away from the tree. They were 70 feet away from a 103 foot tree. The top broke out of the tree as it hit another tree on the way down, but the remaining tree section was still 82 feet. The second is that the crew did not use the tools available to them properly. They had two sections of rope with them, but only used one. They also had access to a come-along but had never been trained on how and when to use it. The crew leader stated that they only use it for trees that have a severe backward lean. The third is that the cuts made in the stump were not the proper depth.

Keywords: Chain Saw, Falling Object, Struck By, Tree Trimming