a

A FALLER “cripples” u upa tree which is between 20 and 30 feet off the ground: Called 2 a rigging buck, the faller prepares the tree so machinery -

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - AS .

can finish tl the buck. “It s just another er thing you could have to. do ona day to day routine,” ” " Says faller Mike McKibbin.

EW ’ disregard for are causing dangerous "

logging “methods and a

working conditions

a report released last! week. chastising the forest

' industry for ignoring. safety regulations.

_faller Mike McKibbin, pinpoints, specific condi- tions: in which many fallers are working’ that he

' The report released by the Western Fallers As!

sociation (WFA) and written by Terrace-based

says are contributing | to an unusually high rate of

- fatal accidents i in the bush. The report, an anecdotal and forthright glimpse

of what is happening on the ground in the logging industry, chastises contractors, major logging companies and other agencies for disregarding forest safety policy.

oDhe-regulations are.being broken blatantly. by .

the people; we are working for,” McKibbin says.

“There are huge policy problems and the fallers . __ are caught right in the middle and it’s killing us.” |

» The report charges that 95 per cent of logging companies in B.C. aren’t following, or at the very least aren’t enforcing, crucial safety regulations.

At the time the report was released 27 workers had died in the logging industry in B.C. this year.

By Sept. 23 that number rose to 29 when two more fatalities occurred — one worker was killed on the job near Prince George when a his torso was crushed as’he operated a feller-buncher. The second man died near Clearwater after an incident with a rubber-tired log loader.

Of those 29 people who died, four were fallers

and another 11 more have suffered crippling ¢ ac-

cidents this year. _ The death rate in B.C.’s forest sector is unac- ceptable, says Tanner Elton the CEO of the B.C. Forest Safety Council, the body that financed the report.

The most recent’ fatalities underscore the im- portance of the report.

“The WFA document is a remarkable report and while it does address fallers I would say no

-more than 30 per cent of the report is specific to :

fallers,”. Elton says. “We were absolutely blown away by how thorough it was...it is an important

: contribution to the entire sector not just fallers.”

The report takes aims at the numerous reali-

safety practices increasingly .more..

. for fallers in B.C.’s forests, says .

ties of work i in the bus already dangerous job. ao The report showcases a litany of situations, which when compounded against one another, are contributing to the high rate of fatalities in B.C. At the top of the list of are what McKibbin

. calls new-age. methods of: harvesting — -most of

which were developed in response to Pressure to” log more environmentally responsibly. Retention logging, single stem logging. and © corridor logging top the list of techniques which are contributing to more accidents in the bush, he

-, $ays. |

Retention and single stem logging target high er value species, leaving the fibre, or low quality species behind.

It’s becoming more prominent in places like the Terrace area where there is a high concen-

- tration of fibre quality, wood such as balsam and’ hemlock mixed in with ‘cedar, spruce and other a

species.

“It’s a damn sight more dangerous because you're under the canopy, you’re not out on an open block,” McKibbin says.

While this type of harvesting is perhaps more © environmentally friendly, it creates a much more dangerous situation for fallers who have to crawl" through debris beneath the trees after they are limbed and topped for falling, he says.

That scenario is made even more perilous by a

‘method that sees trees being cut down in crowded

stands causing limbs and tops to plummet below, endangering anyone in their path.

McKibbin says it violates Works afeBC (WCB) policy and has got to stop.

Perhaps the most damning result of the report is the accusation that up to 95 per cent of the logging companies in the province are allowing — workers to violate safety. regulations because of

- what McKibbin calls “the push” to make money °

and harvest trees quickly, regardless of the haz- ardous conditions fallers must work in. ,

He accuses companies of firing or not hiring subcontractors if they complain about the unsafe conditions of the job.

“It’s running rampant, the intimidation’ and _ bull****. we’ve been put through,” McKibbin says, adding the intimidation crosses job descrip-

; tions, it's not affecting just fallers but other work-

Mer at are exacerbating an °

- WESTERN FALLERS ASSOCIATION PHOTO

ers s such as skidders as well. | “They'll just say, ‘oh, you don’t want to go up

there? I have three guys on this phone list.who

will.”

“McKibbin says WorkSafeBC officials will tell

. workers they have the right to refuse work if they are concerned about the safety of a job, but he

adds unscrupulous companies believe they shave : > the right not to hire any yone who rocks the boat. » And he: says flooding the woods with enforce- .

ment officers is not going to solve the 1 issue — it

_ has to be industry driven. * . Though he’ s quick to acknowledge there are , “good. guys” out there —-contractors who take -

safety issues seriously, despite the added econom- ic strain it may put on the company to enforce.

Tan Munson, owner of Terrace-based Bear

Creek. Contracting Ltd. says contractors that re-

-main in the industry in the northwest — —many have folded in the last five years — are under pressure’ to produce high volume in a short amount of time

with an increasingly unskilled workforce.

Bear Creek does has a safety manual and poli-

cy in place, but it’s not cheap to run and for some

companies that affects the bottom line.

-“It’s-a costly thing to do that and maintain it . to a standard and it’s pretty ‘tough when you have -

an unskilled workforce and you have to have a trainer with every trainee,” Munson says.

And while he agrees 29 deaths in the woods this year is unacceptable, he questions how many

‘ accidents are caused in part because of i inexperi-

_ enced labourers on the job...

-And he says that problem is one that doesn’ t just affect the forest industry but other businesses

in the Northwest that rely on a skilled work force with fewer and fewer trained tradespeople i in it.

“Safety is a number one issue in our company ©

_and I think there is room for improvement in ev-

’ ery area but it’s all about dollars and cents,” Mun-

son says. “The bottom line is you are trying to do the job

most efficient as possible and as cheap as Possible ,

so you can make ends meet.”

Since, the report was released WFA officials, |

the.B.C. Forest Safety Council, labour minister Mike de Jong, forests minister Rich Coleman and

officials from WorkSafeBC have met to address

the recommendations of the report. ©

By SARAH A.

_his toes up to the middle of

E Report exposes faller hazards |

THE REPORT “A View From the Field” outlines the many.

ay _hazards it says fallers face in the bush every day. Here is

a snapshot of some, but not all, of those dangers . and the

report’ s recommendations. - @Man made hazards

Targets excessive debris in fallers’ work areas caused — ~ by road building, processing, ‘feller bunchers, bad stacking

practices in addition to dangers affiliated with more envi- ronmentally friendly harvesting methods. such as’ retention

falling and retention logging. .

falling and single stem harvesting. Calls for an nend to uphill

@ Policy and regulation breakdown 4.

'-» Says there is a disconnect between safety. policies and ©

regulatory requirements which force fallers to work in direct

violation of WorkSafe BC policy. Clear regulations that take

safety practices into account must be established. @ Production pressures - “the push” - Takes aim at the pressure to get more done and accuses

some companies of ignoring safety regulations in order to_

produce. Says “the push” could well be the number one con- tributing factor.to faller accidents in B. C. Ss

@ Naturally occurring hazards

' While naturally occurring hazards can ‘often not be con: trolled, they do contribute :to accidents. Excessive blow

down, snags, heavy rainfall, loose rock; excessive snowfall ‘or heat-are‘all compounded when other man made or pro- ; ‘duction caused hazards are factored in. Recommiends strict _ adherence to not working in excessively rainy conditions.

e Attitudes and accountability.

CEOs of major companies: e Faller certification .

Calls for the elimination of the attitude that logging. com- . panies need to do whatever it takes to get the job done, even. if safety is overlooked. Calls for a review.of WorkSafeBC’s a regulations governing independent | fallers.. Must. involve re

te,

Promotes ‘the : recently-introducel faller: ivaininig stan-

A FALLER on the Queen'Charlotte: islands reachs} es around a giant tree to make his cut. oo

WESTERN FALLERS ASSOCIATION PHOTO |

“a dards, implemented i in conjunction with ‘WorkSafeBC. Ad-. — : vocates faller certification and requests that it be added to the. : E Workers Compensation Act to give it added substance. :

_ people on board.

A snapshot of forestry related deaths in 2005 —

¢ 29 people have died so far this year as a’ result of their work in the forest sectorin B.C. _

@ Four of those were fallers. That number of faller. deaths is on par with the average numbers of deaths among fallers in past years. .

@ Mill workers account for 13 of the. deaths i in n the forest industry this year; which is far more than deaths . recorded by WorkSafeBC in previous years for this —_ sector. Seven of those deaths were from occupational 2 oo disease, primarily from exposure to asbestos. © qT

; @ Five deaths in the forest sector this year were re- corded after a plane crash claimed the lives of all five

@ The most recent deaths in forestry occurred Sept. : 23 when one man was killed near Prince George after — being crushed between a tree and the door of the fell- _er-buncher he was operating. And a 31-year-old man was killed the same day near Clearwater, B.C. He was _ working on a landing and was involved in an accident with a rubber-tired log loader. 7 . Statistics courtesy WorkSafeBC

a

1o.go to the washroom,” Sa-

w 5

more,

Life never the same for paralyzed faller

ZIMMERMAN

JIM SAVARD doesn’t remember much about the day four years ago that changed his life — only that his car broke down three times on his way. to work as a faller in the bush near Copper River.

It was June 28; 2001 and.

he was working for a com- pany that had 4 job’clearing

right-of-ways to build a log-

ging road 43 kilometres up

the Copper River logging ©

road east of Terrace. ..

Savard. left’ his car at a

convenience store and got a lift to the site. The next thing he remembers is waking up in Mills Memorial Hospital and discovering he would probably never walk again.

And he hasn’t walked .

again, following an accident he can’trecall. . - Savard spent a year in

Vancouver between hospital:

and the G.F. Strong Rehabil- itation Centre before com- ing home to his wife, chil- dren and a completely new way of life. Today, he is a paraplegic, paralyzed from

- his torso.

The accident he suffered on the job ‘left him with

what’s called a fifth verte- °

brae “burst” - when that vertebrae is decimated be-

yond repair.— in addition to ~ a broken leg, cracked ribs, -

a dislocated shoulder, punc-

tured lung and damage to.his upper arm muscles. “How: the . accident hap-

pened remains a mystery to ©

Savard who says workers at ‘the site that day have mixed reports of what transpired. A Workers Compensation Board (now WorkeSafeBC)

report left him with more -

questions. about the incident than answers.

“You ask someone who was working there and they won’t say,” he says. “Some

people say a snag got me,

some say a top hit me, but most of them don’t know.”

He had been working as a logger for 33 years and prided himself: on being’ €X- perienced and conscious of the hazards of the job.

“The backhoe operator

says he saw my hard hat fly

JIM SAVARD was a oncert for 33 ‘years before he was paralyzed following an ac- . SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO —

cident he suffered on the job near Terrace.

off...another guy. told me I was falling a tree uphill — and when the heck have I ever fallen. a tree uphill? Never.”

Savard’s wife, Valerie, is also at a loss to explain what occurred.

“I inquired a couple times,” she says adding they

both hoped the WCB inves- ©

tigation would reveal some answers, but it never did. “All it said was there was an accident — a tree fell down.”

Savard -has since had. to learn how to live a different quality of life now that. he can’t walk. It’s a life with- out taking a quick shower

in the morning, without mushroom picking in the woods and without being able to reach the dishes in

’ cupboards above the counter

in his kitchen. Instead, just getting ready in the morning can take hours.

“Tt used to take me five or 10 minutes in them morning

vard says. “Now. it takes me an hour.”

Going from his Thomhill

home into -Terracé for a quick couple errands is not

as easy as it once ones: Get-. «

ting in and out of his van can

' be so time consuming he of-

ten just waits in the-vehicle

while his wife quickly runs |

into the store. Many men injured in the logging industry never re-

group after accidents such as" ‘Savard’s,.says Mike McK-

ibbin, a local faller and au- thor of the Western Fallers

: Association’s (WFA) report

. changed his life forever, he.

- on contributing factors to

accidents in the woods. ’ “Even though it. has

has handled this better than a lot of the guys this has hap- pened to,” says McGibbin. _ While life-altering acci- dent’s such as Savard’s have wreaked havoc on other re- lationships, the couple says if anything, Jim’s accident has made theirs more solid. “No, it brought us to- gether,” says Valerie. “We communicate more, we talk

Savard agrees with many

_of the WFA’s recommen- _ dations on making the log- *. ging industry a safer place - ‘for fallers, particularly the ©

report’s suggestions on road building.

That includes recom- mendations that companies ensure only experienced

fallers work on rights of way -

and that everyone from fall- ers to machinery operators

keep excessive debris out of

fallers’ areas. .

The report also challenges | B.C. Timber Sales and other .

licensees, to stop assuming everyone understands and is

_ adhering to existing safety. . policy - to recognize that su-

pervision is absolutely criti-

cal to ensure safety practices

are being followed.

_ Despite Savard’s positive. outlook, he says he: wishes

people could understand the effects accidents like his have on people. .

“I wouldn’t want any-—

body to be in this shape,” he says. “TI’d like to duct tape WCB in a chair for a day so they can see how it feels.”