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INTRODUCTION:
Using proprietary, “blended” data supplied by four cooperating
Workers’ Compensation Insurance (WCI) providers, Virginia Tech researchers
conducted a comprehensive analysis of 315 randomly-selected logging
accidents and injuries occurring on feller-buncher / grapple skidder
operations in the South (TX to VA) in 2001. The study was a follow-up
to a similar VT logging injury analysis completed five years earlier
(see FRA TR 99-R-2).
FINDINGS:
- 44 of all the
injuries occurred to workers with less than one year with their
current employer, while workers with five or more years on the job
incurred only 24 of the sample injuries.
- 43 of the injuries
occurred in the woods; 38 on the log deck; 12 on the highway; and
3 in the shop.
- For all workers,
the most frequent task being performed when an injury occurred was
operating a chain saw (30); performing equipment maintenance or
repair (18); driving a truck (12); operating a skidder, feller-buncher,
or loader (11); mounting or dismounting (8); and walking (5).
- The most frequently
injured worker was an equipment operator (38 of all injuries); followed
by deckhand (27); truck driver (22); and supervisor (8).
- Equipment operators
were injured while performing maintenance or repair (31); operating
their machine (27); operating a chain saw (14); or mounting/dismounting
their machine (13).
- Deckhands were
injured while delimbing (58); felling (25); lifting something (4);
or walking around the landing (2).
- Truck drivers
were injured while driving a log truck (48); binding the load (12);
dismounting the truck (10); performing maintenance (7).
- For all workers,
46 of the injuries involved being “struck by” or “struck against”
something (usually a tree, limb or log, occasionally a machine);
20 were falls; 10 were motor vehicle accidents; 8 were from overexertion;
and 3 involved a body part being “caught in” machinery.
- Injuries were
about evenly divided between strains/sprains (21); contusions (20);
fractures (20); lacerations (17); and “other” (22) injuries including
burns, foreign object in eye, repetitive motion, amputation, heart
attack, etc.
- The Table below
provides a comparison of the task being performed when an injury
occurred for operations exclusively using mechanical delimbing devices
(i.e. pull-through or stroke delimbers) versus those employing manual
chainsaw delimbing/topping.
- The Table below
provides a comparison of the task being performed when an injury
occurred for operations located in the Southeast region (VA, NC,
SC, GA, FL) versus operations located in the Southcentral region
(AL, MS, TN, LA, AR, TX).
- Truck drivers
who were injured in a motor vehicle accident were more often driving
a loaded log truck (79) than an unloaded one (21).
- The single
most common accident incurred by equipment operators was to suffer
a sprain/strain as a result of being struck by a machine or part
while performing maintenance or repair.
- The single
most common accident incurred by deckhands was to suffer a contusion
or laceration as a result of being struck by a log or limb while
delimbing/topping trees at the landing.
- 60 of all the
sample injuries occurred during the 6-month spring/summer period
between March and August.
- 50 of the sample
injuries resulted in one or more days of “lost time.”
Some
interesting comparisons with the 1996 study results can be noted:
An
equipment operator was the most frequently injured worker in 2001
– in 1996 it was a deckhand. This may be because deckhands comprised
a smaller percentage of the mechanized logging workforce in 2001 than
they did in 1996.
Equipment
operators in 2001 were less frequently injured while mounting or dismounting
their machine than they were in 1996 (13 versus 23). Perhaps logging
equipment manufacturers have improved safe access to their machines.
The
percentage of chain saw-related injuries has not changed from 1996
(30) to 2001 (30)—even on operations with mechanized delimbing, 21
of the accidents still involve the use of a chain saw. As in 1996,
this likely relates to the continuing necessity to manually fell and/or
delimb the occasional oversize or difficult-to-access tree that cannot
be routinely processed by a machine.
In 2001, a log truck driver’s cause of injury was more frequently
due to a motor vehicle accident (48) then in 1996 (35). More traffic
on the highways?
Tal
Roberts, Research Associate
Bob Shaffer, Professor of Forestry Operations
Forestry Department
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
STAFF
COMMENT: This study was partially funded by the Timber Harvesting
and Transportation Safety (THATS) Foundation, and FRA’s Southwide
Safety Committee provided substantial project support. Complete details
including the study methodology, statistical analysis, and results
will soon be published as an FRA report.
Reviewed
by:
Larry Davis
Southeastern Technical Division Forester |
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