Tree work incident report 16NY024: pulled into a wood chipper, New York

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. This page restates one official fatality report in our own words: case 16NY024 from the New York State Department of Health's Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program. It covers a ground worker pulled into a wood chipper at a residential job on May 4, 2016. No one is named here or in the report, and the report says it does not determine fault or legal liability. The table of all the reports we read is in the official case library for tree work incidents.

What happened

The employer, a small tree service, hired the worker for one day of ground work at three residential sites. The worker had never done tree work. At the first site the employer showed the worker how to feed branches, how to switch the machine off, and how the feed control bar and the two last chance cables work. The report says the employer told the worker not to feed the chipper while the feed wheels were engaged, and also said he could feed it when an experienced worker stood nearby.

A property owner's surveillance camera at the second site recorded the worker feeding the chipper while the wheels were pulling material in, leaning and reaching into the hopper, pushing small debris in by hand, and standing between two logs that were being fed. The report says the employer was near and did not stop this. The fatal event came at the third site at 1:15 p.m., while the crew took down a pine. No one saw the moment itself. The employer had seen the worker standing beside the hopper with nothing left to feed, and less than a minute later heard what he called a "weird noise". He found the worker's feet sticking out of the chipper, switched it off and called 911. The worker was pronounced dead at the scene.

The machine

The chipper was a hand-fed disc machine that cuts material up to 12 inches across. The report says its feed wheels pull material in at 2 feet per second. A worker at the end of the feed tray stands 66 inches from the wheels, which the report works out as 2.75 seconds before the wheels reach him, and the last chance cables sit 18 inches from the wheels, leaving 0.75 seconds to pull them once he reaches them. The machine's maker examined it 12 days later and found no fault that contributed to the event. The examination did note a missing push paddle, the manual and safety DVD not kept on the machine, worn knife blades and other defects.

The employer and the enforcement outcome

The report says the employer had no written safety program, no worker training program and no workers' compensation insurance at the time. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the employer for one willful and three serious violations with a penalty of US$141,811. The employer contested the citations and the case went to a formal hearing of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. When the report was written the judge had not issued a decision, and this page does not know the outcome.

Factors the report lists

Inexperienced and untrained workers were assigned to feed the chipper.
Training on chipper hazards and safe feeding was not provided.
Safe feeding techniques were not followed.
Workers were not required to wear proper clothing and protective equipment.
Adequate supervision was not provided.

What the report recommends

The report recommends that employers make sure workers follow the chipper maker's feeding techniques, train every worker before assigning chipper feeding, require close-fitting clothing and protective equipment, follow the maker's instructions and keep the manual on the machine. It also recommends that chipper makers develop fully automatic feed control devices, because the current stop controls need a worker to act, and that more research and resources go to self-employed people and small firms. The rules for chippers as regulators and standards state them are in the guide to chippers and stump grinders.

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