Date of incident: April 2022
Notice of incident number: 2022161740030
Employer: Logging services company

Incident summary
Two workers were conducting roadside clearing and brushing activities on the side of a forest service road. One worker was falling a leaning alder tree with a chainsaw while the other worker, his supervisor, was nearby, blocking the road. The trunk of the tree barberchaired (split vertically). As the tree fell, the trunk kicked back and struck the worker. The worker sustained serious injuries and later died.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Unqualified worker struck by tree while felling it. The worker was not a qualified tree faller but was falling a leaning alder that was approximately 27.9 cm (11 in.) in diameter at the stump. When the roadside clearing and maintenance work transitioned into the manual falling of any trees with a diameter of more than 15 cm (6 in.), a qualified tree faller should have been sought to assess the risks and safely conduct the work. When the trunk of the tree barberchaired, it kicked back and struck the worker, who had not moved far enough away from the falling tree.

Contributing factors

• Lack of training, information, and certification. The worker, although experienced with a chainsaw as a bucker, was not qualified to manually fall trees to a standard that was acceptable to WorkSafeBC, as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. No escape route, which was required to safely escape the falling tree, had been planned. In addition, the employer had not trained the workers to adequately assess the risks associated with manually falling the tree or ensured that the workers were certified and qualified.
• Improper falling cuts. The cuts on the tree did not adhere to the safe work practices specified by the Regulation and the BC Faller Training Standard. The undercut was incorrect and incomplete for a leaning deciduous tree, and the backcut was not placed in a position that would have decreased the risk of a barberchair.
• Inadequate supervision. The employer failed to ensure the health and safety of the worker at the time of the incident. The employer ought to have ensured that the supervisor was adequately trained and informed of his responsibility to ensure that a qualified tree faller was used to plan for and fall the tree that barberchaired. Had the employer ensured that the supervisor knew that trees with a diameter of 15 cm (6 in.) or more are required to be felled by a qualified tree faller, the worker would not have been in a situation that exposed him to the risks that a qualified tree faller would have been trained to mitigate.

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