Tree work incident report 21WA5248: fall from a boom lift basket, Washington

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: Washington State FACE report 52-48-2021, dated May 31, 2021, listed by OSHA's tree care page as 21WA4248 and stored by the CDC under the file name 21WA5248. It covers an operator who fell from the basket of a boom lift on April 2, 2020. No one is named here or in the report. The table of every report we read is in the official case library for tree work incidents.

What happened

A three-person crew arrived at a home at 8:30 a.m. to remove trees that were damaging a garage foundation. The job had passed from a logging company to the employer, a small tree removal firm. The employer rented a boom lift, a chipper and two fall protection harnesses with lanyards. The employer stayed on the ground on the chipper while the operator and a coworker went up in the basket to limb with chain saws.

The basket stood at 20 feet, with its floor 12 feet above the roof of a neighbor's shed. To keep branches from damaging the garage and shed roofs, the crew decided to pull cut limbs into the basket. They did this for an hour. The operator opened the side access gate, which swings inward, to bring branches in. At 10 a.m. the coworker, bending to pick up his saw, saw the operator fall onto the shed roof 12 feet below. The report says it is unknown whether he leaned out and lost balance or tripped on the branches or toe board. He was flown to a hospital and died two days later, and the cause is given as injuries to the head and neck.

What the report found

The two rented harnesses lay in the basket, unworn. The coworker told investigators they felt the harnesses got in the way. A warning sign beside the basket controls states that occupants must wear a harness attached to an anchor point, and the rental company confirmed the manual says the same and advises against bringing objects into the basket that exceed its capacity. The employer had no written accident prevention program, which Washington requires, held no safety meetings and did not hold a job meeting that day.

Factors the report lists

Personal fall protection was not worn.
The basket gate was open.
The operator overreached to cut and pull branches in.
Branches in the basket may have caused crowding and trip hazards.
There was no accident prevention program and no job hazard analysis.

What the report recommends

The report recommends boom lift training for workers, personal fall protection whenever workers are exposed to a fall in a basket, a written accident prevention program covering tree work hazards, and a job hazard analysis before each new job. The guide to bucket trucks and elevated work platforms sets out what regulators say about lifts.

To correct or remove an entry, write to the address at the foot of this page.

Tree work incident report 21WA5248: fall from a boom lift basket, Washington

What happened

What the report found

Factors the report lists

What the report recommends

Sources