Abstract: At approximately 3:00 p.m. on March 9, 1991, Employee #1 had nearly finished cutting his assigned strip of trees. As he was waiting for the job helicopter to take him to the landing, he saw another tree that needed to be cut, about 200 ft from the helicopter. Employee #1 proceeded to fell the tree, but made his backcut almost level with his undercut. This did not leave enough holding wood to turn the tree so it would fall across the hillside. When the tree fell, its crown struck the crown of a small tree approximately 20 ft away. This kicked the cut end of the falling tree into Employee #1, knocking him down and then landing on top of him. He sustained massive crushing injuries to his chest and abdomen, and died at the hospital. The employer was cited for a violation of T8CCR 5a(1), failure to make a proper backcut.