are generally associated
and engineering methods
and necessary in the early
and because of constantly
equipment and processes,
methods bring unknown
equipment can increase

él very important to recom-
htly painted guards, ap-
‘ipment and better house-
of lowering the accident
help to reduce accidents
ful selling effort to secure

|

1 condition which produces

ude of all the people in in-

mind, possibly more closely

Mise of moral responsibility
instinct.

e a condition of safety-
ible to blueprint a man’s
le by means of physics and

ees skill to change a
ice to interest than it does
the first need of the safety
paign which will have an
ating forces that will make
élves. The feeling of safety
ed only within each indi-
of his own intellect and
.

but the final selling of
jnires personal contact. If
yr sell the belief to others
suade still others to a con-

|
nsation Board

retary
1D, Commissioner

2

IWA Member

A %" drift bolt 7%” long im-
bedded in a log which was in the
process of being sawn into lum-
ber caused this accident. The
Band Head Saw was broken and
Brother Malloff received a deep
laceration to his forearm requir-
ing hospital care for many days.

Brother Malloff was very for-
tunate, his life could well have
been the forfeit for
carelessness.

The Alaska Pine, where this
accident occurred, has an envi-
able record in the accident pre-
vention field, The Management
and Plant Safety Committee have
bent every effort to assure that

F. J. COURNEYEUR
fety Committee, Alaska Pine Co. Ltd.

“Pete Malloff, tail sawyer, injured at 10:55 a.m., April.

8, 1953. Returned to work May 4 at 7:30 a.m.”
The foregoing is the terse report on what is commonly

known as an accident in a sawmill.

someone’s

all machinery is safeguarded to
the extent that human ingenuity
can make possible.

Remote Cause

Why then this “so-called acci-
dent”?

Why do I use the phrase “so-
called accident”? The answer is
simple. It was not an accident
we had at the A.P. Plant. What
happened at the Alaska Pine was
the culmination of a series of
accidents that occurred, possibly
some months past, and possibly
some hundreds of miles away.

Most of us are familiar with
the law. of cause and effect. We

‘BRINGS DANGER

can only speculate regarding the
primary cause that eventually
Jed to Brother Malloff’s injury.

Questions to Answer

Was it caused by the neglect
of a supervisor in a logging camp
not training his crew properly in
matters pertaining to safety?

Could the primary cause be in
an individual logger disregarding
safety training and _callously
leaving a drift bolt embedded in
a log?

Of one thing we can be certain,
the drift bolt was imbedded in
the log by “human hands” some-
where between the spot where
the tree originally stood and the
plant booming ground. Wherever
it happened, was where the acci-
dent occurred. Pete had no acci-
dent, but he certainly suffered
the culminating effect of one.

The Remedy
In the interest of safety for all

of us, it cannot be too strongly
stressed, metal of any kind
should not, unless absolutely ne-
cessary, be imbedded in standing
trees or logs. Where drift bolts
or spikes are used jn order to
secure rigging and guylines, once
they have served their purpose,
they should be immediately ex-
tracted.

Failure to do this is nothing
less than criminal. Untold num-
bers of workers have been in-
jured, many killed and many
more will suffer a like fate, till
such times our fellow workers in.
the forest realize that inasfar as
metal left in logs, the safety of
the mill worker is in their hands.

I will close with the follow-,
ing observation: “No one is
truly safety ‘conscious till he
co-relates his personal safety
with the safety of others.

“Are

By ARTHUR FRANCIS

Chief Inspector, Workmen’s
Compensation Board
(in B. C. Lumbermun)

The following letter to. the
Board was from an old-time
bucker commenting on an acci-
dent report concerning the death
of a bucker:

"Here is another of those term
ed accidents went by and nobody
seems 10 do anything ubout it.
And why not, the camps are plas-
tered with Safety First, what for,
just for fun or something. This
here report which I enclose look
very poor. Why this said bucker
have to be in front of the fallers.
As a tule bucker not suppose to
be in front of the fallers, even
hand fallers.

Bucker ‘should be bebind the
Fallers at the time. The report
state the Fallers did signal to the
buckers, if they did why bucker
didn't come out, they should go
and find out what is wrong. But
I think there was no signal, only
usual say, ob this is short tree it
didn't reach there. Yes, it was
short, but it was long enough to
get a bucker. Some of those full-
ers they are so stupid so they are
not happy if they haven't got
bucker in front of them and they
like 10 see bucker fly in all direc-
tion. Bucker have plenty to watch
for all kinds tops, chunks, and
snags flying all around, without
being under the tree.

The man is dead he wouldn't
talk and such story going repeat
again and again, And there some
of the fallers who do signal or
holler, they do so when the tree
is half way to the ground, Such
kind of fallers should ban from
the woods.”

y AMO ANOTWER THC
gle COTTA LEAR 15.
OWT STAND WEAR,

High Rates

| An analysis of accidents re-
ported to the Board for the six-
year period 1947 to 1952 shows
that for every nine injuries to
loggers, two were to,a faller or a
bucker. In fatal casds two out of
every seven deaths were to a
member of the falling and buck-
ing crew.

Buckers averaged in that per-
iod 7.07 percent of all injuries
and 8.38 percent of all fatalities
in the logging industry.

In the 37 fatal accidents to
buckers that occurred during this
| period 59.47% could be charged
to the action of the fallers;
27.02% could be classified as a
result of the bucker’s action, and
13.51% to miscellaneous natural

hazards. é
Working Too Close

i]

| ‘The accident reeords indicate
| that the regulations are not being
| |

complied with, that buckers are
working too close to fallers, and
that fallers are not making cer-
tain that buckers are out of dan-
ger. Strange as it may seem, one
of the strongest motives for this |
seems to be because the crew |
want to keep an up-to-the-minute |
record of their scale. Another
reason given is that there are
occasions when the bucker needs
a tance from the fallers. Again
the crew start the quarter at the
same time and the bucker does
not want to be idle, They also
want to finish the quarter to-
gether. A further reason given is
that the fallers want to keep the
bucker in sight so that they will
not inadvertently drop a tree on
him.

|

New Customs

The almost complete use of
power saws for falling and buck-

ing, together with the influx of
new and inexperienced workers
into the woods, has replaced old,
established habits and customs
with new methods and view-
points. There does not appear to
be the same control of the falling
tree, This may be due to a lack of
skill and experience, indifference
on the part of the faller, or a de-
sire to knock over the greatest
number of trees possible. Re-
gardless of reason, direction of
fall has a very important bearing
on safety. For example, a head
faller stated at a recent inquest
of a bucker: “We were falling
a spruce and as a rule spruce
fall in the direction they lean but
this one started to lift and came
back. The wind was not severe.
I went over to where the tree
landed and saw the bucker lying
underneath.” "
Precautions Ignored

Accident reports indicate that
undereuts are not adequate or
not properly cleaned out and that
the amount and location of uncut
holding wood does not fulfill its
intended function. Wedges are
rarely used and in a great many
cases are not even present on the
job. The resulting uncontrolled
direction of fall or the common
incidence of the falling tree kick-
ing back makes the entire area
surrounding a falling crew haz-
ardous, not only to buckers and
scalers but also to the fallers
themselves.

Even the old-time shouted
warning of. “Timber” is being dis-
carded as being futile and inef-
fectual over the barking exhaust
of the falling and bucking en-
gines. It is quite obvious that
when bucking with a power’ saw a
bucker’s ability to hear anything
other than his engine is practic-
ally reduced to zero.

Size of Crew

A great deal of thought and at-
tention is‘ being given at the
present time to the size of fall-
ing and bucking crews, Crews of

| from. one to four men are being

used with up to three power saws

| Pex gang.

One-man power saws are quite

|} common and are increasing in

size. When used on the larger
trees one man has difficulty in
judging the location, of the cut
on the opposite side and loses
accuracy in determining direction
of fall. Some concern is being
shown over the welfare of fallers
working alone. Falling crews
normally have little contact with
other crews or with places or
persons who can render assist-
ance in case of injury. It is worse
when a man is working alone and
it is quite possible that the lack
of a fellow worker could cause
an injured person to die for want
of simple treatment.

Safety Factors

Falling Methods Safe?”

| body, is perturbed over the safety
factors involved in the trend to
one-man power saws and. the
multiple use of saws within one
gang, the falling crews, them-
selves, appear, to be more influ-
enced by the possibility of great-
er personal gain to be earned at
the moment.

The Board is watching develop-
ments with the hope that indus- ”
try will plan to develop methods
and practices in falling and buck-
ing without wasteful and un-
necessary injury to the workmen.

First Aid
Praised

Cooperation of all depart.
ments in the Nicola Valley
Sawmills Ltd. was made evi-
dent at a recent meeting of the
safety Committee which took
the form of a smoker at Mer-
ritt, B.C. The 21 employees
present represented the crews
in all the various departments,
as well as management, A. W.
Rowbottom, Local 1-423, IWA,
and A. N. Swinton, LF.A.A.

The members present were en-
thusiastic in their praise of the
excellent first aid work reported,
which demonstrated marked effi-
ciency and speed.

Accidents reported were dis-
cussed and plans laid to prevent
any recurrence.

A demonstration was staged of
the value of safety shoes. As a
result, an agreement was made
by which thé management will
purchase 60 pairs for the stores
department.

A first aid demonstration was
presented in which the correct
methods of lifting, an injured
workman on to a stretcher were
enacted.

Chabot
Mourned

Officers of Local 1-71, IWA,
announce with deep regret the
accidental death of Bro, Archie
Chabot, Camp Secretary at Just-
katla, Q.C.L.

Pending report of the inquest
only meagre details regarding the
accident are available, but it is
understood that he was killed
while engaged in loading.

The deceased was known in
Coast logging camps as a zealous -
and loyal IWA member, and his
popularity among his fellow crew
members made him a tower of

Although organized labor, as a

strength in IWA activities.