Date of incident: January 2022
Notice of incident number: 2022183430001
Employers: Manual tree falling and bucking company (2); timber licence holder; forest management company (prime contractor)

Incident summary
A faller was hand falling a dangerous tree at a forestry operation. After he made his cuts into the tree, the tree fell in an unexpected direction into standing timber and broke into pieces. A piece of broken tree struck the faller, who sustained fatal injuries.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Directional control of tree was lost. The undercut into the dangerous tree was too deep, sufficient holding wood was not maintained, and a wedge was not inserted, which might have prevented the tree from sitting back (moving in the opposite direction than intended as the backcut closed) and breaking off. The tree was also heavily rotten throughout, leaving very little solid wood in the middle of the existing trunk. As a result of the extensive rot, the insufficient holding wood, and the excessive undercut, there was not enough structural integrity to prevent the tree from falling in an unexpected direction. The faller lost directional control, and the dangerous tree struck another tree. This caused the dangerous tree to break into several pieces, including the large piece that struck the faller.

Contributing factors

• Inadequate prime contractor oversight.
  • The timber licence holder did not ensure that the prime contractor it hired fulfilled its responsibility to both plan and oversee the forestry operation in a manner consistent with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation and with safe work practices acceptable to WorkSafeBC. The licence holder did not ensure that the prime contractor had procedures or a system to ensure that safe logging procedures were monitored and enforced.
  • The prime contractor did not ensure that it had a system that was capable of monitoring and enforcing safe work procedures at the forestry operation. Furthermore, the prime contractor failed to ensure that the falling and bucking activities were planned and conducted in accordance with the Regulation.
• Inadequate supervision. A forestry operation is required to have a qualified supervisor for falling and associated bucking activities. The prime contractor did not officially designate a falling supervisor, but rather assumed that another contract faller working at the forestry operation who was a certified falling supervisor would fulfill that position. No one inspected the workplace of each faller at intervals appropriate to the risk or ensured that the work was conducted in accordance with the Regulation, as required. This failure resulted in unsafe falling practices occurring at the worksite, which exposed workers to a high risk of sustaining serious or fatal injuries.

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