Man Dies in Wood Chipper

[oosik]

My chipper is manual feed but, believe me, it pulls VERY hard on whole trees. Friends come to help me chip and without exception they eventually feed the chipper by throwing the trees in the chute. Holding the tree as the chipper starts chipping will definitely wake a tired, sleepy helper.

That would not be a pleasant, quick nor painless way to go.

 

[ericher69]

It sounds like something wasn't working correctly. I wonder if we'll ever know how that happened, or if it will be possible to do much in the way of post-mortem testing of the body.

By the reddish blob in the wood chip pile I would think any post mortem testing is out...

Sent from my iPhone 5s 64Gb using TractorByNet

 

[Happy Gilmore]

A good friend of mine recently scrapped an older chipper he had. It did not have feed rollers. He pulled the engine for a later use, but cut the chipper up with a torch. I asked why he cut it up as someone could have used it. His exact words were "that's the point."

 

[ZAR2USA]

GRAPHIC - Not for the Faint of Heart!

LiveLeak.com - Death by Woodchipper - Graphic

 

[TomSeller]

When I was in high school I worked at the local lumber mill. My first job was chipper "watcher". The mill was on the main level, and the conveyors and chipper were in the basement. I'd unplug it when it got bound up. One place I had to walk over a moving conveyor (heading towards the chipper). To get to a hopper that would plug up. Man... what a dangerous place. If I'd fallen, no one would have heard or seen me. The mill's closes since then.

For people who've never seen or worked around one... once one blade grabs something it pretty well gets sucked in. It's like the next blade is there pulling before the first one ends. I don't think you could pull a board out once it's started getting chipped.

Similar experience for me, I was sent to relieve a fuel hog shredder operator. That thing shred up every chunk of a tree not worth anything, stumps, large branch crotches, you name it. After a week I asked "when is the regular guy coming back?". The bosses said "he is not coming back". I asked "where did he go?". They pointed into the throat of the hog.

In retrospect, there is a reason for today's focus on safety in the workplace. I was asked to do that job without any safety harness, any safety awareness whatsoever. Lives were expendable back then. The only thing that saved me was my farm boy experiences. Don't walk behind a horse... Don't reach into a baler..... On and on. I was fortunate to grow up on a farm.

 

[TCJatko]

Similar experience for me, I was sent to relieve a fuel hog shredder operator. That thing shred up every chunk of a tree not worth anything, stumps, large branch crotches, you name it. After a week I asked "when is the regular guy coming back?". The bosses said "he is not coming back". I asked "where did he go?". They pointed into the throat of the hog.

In retrospect, there is a reason for today's focus on safety in the workplace. I was asked to do that job without any safety harness, any safety awareness whatsoever. Lives were expendable back then. The only thing that saved me was my farm boy experiences. Don't walk behind a horse... Don't reach into a baler..... On and on. I was fortunate to grow up on a farm.

Reminds me of the time I heard a news report from northern California where three guys at a sawmill went into a debarking machine, apparently to clear some kind of jam, and it "accidentally" restarted. Not a pleasant fate.

 

[tamu94]

Reminds me of the time I heard a news report from northern California where three guys at a sawmill went into a debarking machine, apparently to clear some kind of jam, and it "accidentally" restarted. Not a pleasant fate.

My dad worked in a mill back in the 70's. He had to clear jams on the debarker all of the time. Apparently the same thing as you describe happened to someone after he left.

 

[TomSeller]

Hence the lock out tag out rules we have today.

 

[jimpen]

I was told a story years ago. Working on the Washington State docks he was part of the crew the helped prep fishing boats to go out. Part of the process was to chip 1/2 ton blocks of ice into the the holds of the boat. The one block was down to about 50-100 lb chunk (about $2 worth) that wouldn't chip down. So he stuck his leg on it to force it through. It chipped the rest of the ice and his foot too. The only thing that saved him was the rest of his body was out side the chute. He's now nicknamed gimp.

 

[NS Gearhead]

When I worked at the mill they wanted me to work a machine up on the floor... they called it the Bull Edger. It was the machine that cut the logs up into 2" strips after the sawyer cut the slabs off the sides. Anyway, I couldn't hear what they were saying, and was way too intimidated, so they said nevermind and got someone else to do it. The next day another kid from school ran the machine and had a bad accident with it. The machine jamed, he opened the roller, and it spit out a board at him. The end struck him in the face lodging itself in his eye socket/ scull. I was at the stud mill on the other end of the site that day, so lucky I wasn't around for that. I guess they had to cut the board before getting him in the ambulance. He's ok, but permanently scared.

Yup, mills were dangerous places... probably still are. This was around 97-2000