THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER RISING INDUSTRY FATALITIES CALL FOR REVIEW OF PROCEDURES By ANDY SMITH Regional Safety Director Recent fatalities in the industry bring out two very important points. One is that inadequate training and instruction, as well as a.lack of supervision, was evident. This is a responsibility of management and if the rising numbers of fatalities are to be stopped a review of procedures must be undertaken at once. The second point is the fact that the victims did know the safe work procedures but did not follow them. This is the responsibility of the work- man and everyone must realize that he must assume the responsibility for his own safety. Investigation has shown that an error in judgment has re- sulted in death for many skilled and experienced workers. Pictures and investigation reports appear on this page and in only one instance (truck driver at Hope) is there a suspicion of mechanical failure; a defective trailer reach. Both Union and Management must make a greater effort to reduce the rising numbers of fatalities in our industry. It can be done. TRUCK DRIVER'S DEATH BLAMED ON FAULTY REACH THE TWO ABOVE PICTURES of the fatality in Local 1-367 show, first, the corner where the logging truck went over bank; second, the truck at the bottom of the ravine, with a closeup of the reach which investigators believe was responsible for the accident. By LARRY BARNES Local 1-367 Safety Director On July 21st, 1969, shortly after 5 p.m., logging truck driver Dennis Bart West- brook, of Hope, brought out his last load of logs. After straightening out on a down ill corner, 26 miles up the Skajit Valley, his trailer ap- parently failed to respond properly and tracked onto the soft shoulder throwing truck trailer and load 50 feet down an embankment. He was thrown out of the cab and was found crushed under one of the logs from the load by members of the rigging crew, who conducted the rescue op- eration. After a thorough accident investigation by the Local Safety Director and Financial Secretary, it appeared that there was a good possibility that the trailer reach had buckled while coming out of the corner causing the trailer to side track over the bank. The 69 Kenworth Truck and Trailer appeared to be in good mechanical condition and had worked only 20 days. The logging road was also in good shape and the corner was wide with plenty of room with a grade of approximately 5 to 8%. Dennis, who was 39 years old, was fully experi- enced with many years of logging truck driving to his record. He was known to be a careful and cautious driver and had spent a° life-time in the logging. industry. Dennis was married with two children. He was a long time IWA member who was well respected as a workman and loyal trade unionist. His family’s loss is our loss, he will be sorely missed by all who knew him. banter ae | AF PUSS = Ww As SS, . — . ERROR IN A tragic error in judg- ment is presumed responsible for the death of this faller killed recently in one of the coast logging operations. Be- cause a picture of the victim is shown at the accident scene, the Lumber Worker is not giving his name nor that of the operation he worked in to protect members of his family from any further suffering. The victim was falling right of way and had made one pass | By Fy eee po P &. ia pe GY pes Df eg A . Th ¢ > 2 oa TAL ELS ce =. , y a yc ; iy Pe JUDGMENT KILLS COAST FALLER of the lower face. For some unknown reason he moved into the upper face where he felled some timber and buck- ed a number of logs. This put him into the posi- tion of having bucked timber above standing timber on a sixty percent grade. While preparing to fell an- other tree a bucked log rolled down the hill and crushed him to death. INADEQUATE TRAINING HT /G\ Bt ul iii fi KILL Lack of adequate training on how to operate a rubber tired skidder is considered re- sponsible for the death of James Maurice Moreno, age 24 years, who was killed Aug. 1 at Franklin River, when he lost control of the machine. Moreno was working as a rubber tired skidder hooker with an operator and one chokerman in a _pulpwood recovery area that had been access - logged several years previous. The country was steep and the roads showed evidence of several years of weathering. At the time of the accident, Moreno was operating the skidder while the regular op- erator was sizing up an area of hillside that had not yet been cleaned of pulpwood. Moreno took the turn up the road to the landing and on his way back down the hill, lost control of the machine which was apparently in high gear) and ran off the D S MACHINE OPERATOR road on the low side. The machine rolled down the hill approximately two hundred feet to a roadway below. Moreno was dead when the other workman reached him and the machine was in high gear with the engine still run- ning. Moreno was thrown off the machine halfway down the hill. Moreno started as a choker- man approximately two weeks before the accident. He was promoted to rigging slinger and then to hooker on the rubber tired skidder approx- imately five days before the accident. Moreno’s experience as an operator began on the day of the accident —he had made four previous trips on flat ground prior to the one up the hill which proved fatal. The Safety Committee in- vestigating the accident dis- covered Moreno had been given very informal and un- supervised training on the machine.