Man dies after going through woodchipper

[kimtree]

After doing a bit of research on chipper deaths in the USA it appears that there have been more lawsuits relating to deaths in Morbark chippers then other brands of chippers.

Most of the lawsuits relate to Morbark not having a bottom/knee bar or a faulty stop/reverse/go bar

Morbark is now promoting 'chip safe' gloves and leg bands which activate and stop the feed wheels when in side the chipper hopper.

 

a system that has been around for a while but has not been cost effective to fit to chippers until now( maybe it is now cheaper to install rather than keeping paying out on lawsuits )

Getting the operators to wear these all the time might prove to be the next problem

It might be considered to be a PITA by some but a bottom safety bar is a better idea i think

[jomoco]

There's a bitter sweet irony at work in this thread.

 

In that a few posters intuitively suggested the very solution I presented to Morbark, Vermeer and the NAA/TCIA in the mid 90's, almost 20 years ago!

 

I mean think about it, do commercial saw mills mill logs that ain't been run through a metal detector?

 

Are urban trees notorious for their metal content? J lags, eyebolts, chains etc? Do any of these mix well with 600 lb mandrel's spinning at high RPM?

 

Think about it. Sawmills won't do it simply cuz of downtime and repair expenses. But the tree industry will despite 56 treeworkers being eaten alive on the job.

 

It ain't right, and it will change.

 

Kudos to Morbark for doin the right thing, and providing mistake prone operators of their chippers a second chance to make it home safely at the end of a hard day's work.

 

Jomoco

[jomoco]

In case yu think it ain't so?

 

United States Patent: 5667152

 

Jomoco

[Joe Newton]

Just a thought: your two man rule. It's there to stop accidents which shouldn't be happening. If your second man is there to press the stop button to save a co-worker from being dragged in, you should be looking at eliminating the root cause of the problem. If someone is being pulled in its already gone way too far.

 

In the Uk the few WTCs we have are crane fed. No-one gets eaten alive because nobody is in the danger zone.

 

AFAIK the only chipper related injuries in the UK are due to operator error.

 

Hopefully you'll take this inboard before writing me off as a climber who is happy to accept the injury of his ground crew as long as I have a rescue climber on hand to come tie my boot laces should the need arise

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[jomoco]

These accidents keep happenin because it is still legal for a tree service owner to let one man operate WTC's on their job sites, on both sides of the pond.

 

You'll never quite get how these accidents happen till you've actually fed an 1800 or 2400 woodchipper yourselves guys. I mean you have to really pay attention and keep movin away from the crush zone. But from a practical point of view, one man feedin a big branch must first get the butt on the feed table, then move back into that very crush zone to get the branch into the feedwheels.

 

The close calls I've witnessed firsthand on the 1800's happen in that very scenario, but the actual contact the butt makes with the cutters on the spinning mandrel reorients the entire branch causing it whip violently about on the feed table along its entire length whether 15 feet long or 30 feet long, like Godzilla's tail tryin to knock you off your feet as you try and escape it's reach.

 

It's nothing at all like feedin a small chipper. More like feedin a very hungry man eating tiger with a very long destructive tail.

 

Makes no sense to work that big a capacity chipper solo in the first place. BC1000 10 inch units are far safer for a solo operator feedin properly cut up brush on the job.

 

I know the first 1800 I fed scared me to the point I established my own two man minimum on my crew right then and there, no arm twisting needed!

 

Jomoco

[Steve Bullman]

One obvious safety measure would be to slow down the feed rollers, or have a button on the side so you could easily change speeds. Ie, engage the branch in the rollers on slow speed, step to the side and hit the speed button to whack the branch through at full speed

[jomoco]

All it takes is a bent dogleg branch orienting itself on the feed table upon contact with the mandrel blades Steve.

 

The feedwheel's hold on the branch is passive enough to allow the entire branch to spin 180 degrees, flip the whole branch over, on top of you if you ain't on your toes. The motive force is the spinning mandrel powering the flip, not the feed wheels, or their rate of feed.

 

I watched this very thing knock a 250 lb dude off his feet, hook him from behind the knee somehow, slowly drag him up onto the feed table in time with the auto feed rate, and just as the feedwheels got his knee, the second groundie hit the reverse bar. All he needed was a few stitches. This with an 1800 Vermeer.

 

Jomoco

[easy-lift guy]

After doing a bit of research on chipper deaths in the USA it appears that there have been more lawsuits relating to deaths in Morbark chippers then other brands of chippers.

Most of the lawsuits relate to Morbark not having a bottom/knee bar or a faulty stop/reverse/go bar

Morbark is now promoting 'chip safe' gloves and leg bands which activate and stop the feed wheels when in side the chipper hopper.

 

a system that has been around for a while but has not been cost effective to fit to chippers until now( maybe it is now cheaper to install rather than keeping paying out on lawsuits )

Getting the operators to wear these all the time might prove to be the next problem

It might be considered to be a PITA by some but a bottom safety bar is a better idea i think

 

Getting the operators to wear these all the time might prove to be the next problem. THERE IS NO PROBLEM FOR THE OPERATORS TO WEAR THIS NEW SAFETY GEAR. It is a matter of CHOICE!!!!!.

Regardless how many safety features are incorporated the final choice is still up to the company to provide the best safety protocol and equipment first.

If that is done and the operator still has an avoidable accident that I have mention reasons for in previous replies so be it.

 

My opinion is based in reality and common sense, sadly I see less and less of both here in this country:thumbdown:

easy-lift guy

[Gnome]

If a worker is worried about being eaten alive by a WTC they should decide to do a different, safer line of work, ( I know I would now knowing the fatality rate) that has to be the easiest answer to the problem. Remove self from hazard.

 

If they decide to carry on then they are at Darwins mercy, unfortunate as that may be for some workers who feel they don't have a choice with who they work for.

[WeFixIt]

The Environment Agency introduced a six month safety inspection to all their chippers after someone removed there finger tips spinning the flywheel after unblocking - the hand resting on the body while the other pull the fly wheel round!! The paddles do the chopping!!

 

Now all chippers get a full safety inspection to ensure all safety devises are working and maintained correctly

 

Is all of your safety devises working correctly!!!

Is that stop bar a bit stiff !

Does your auto reset lock in the stop position every time !

Does your stress control even work!

There is many a chipper out there which would fail one of them 3

On a inspection depending on model and type there's about 30 items to check!!!

How good is yours

 

Death prevention must be a first at all times so should this kind of inspection be made a requirement for

all chippers like HGV's have six weekly (before anyone does it's not always six weeks I know!) checks should all chippers have six month checks?

 

 

 

 

 

Is it a chipper, is it a mower or another broken stump grinder who cares we'll fix it!