Research Project Summary

Year Funded: 2010 Budget: 120,950 Funding Agency: WorkSafeBC
Title: Can Attributes Indentified at the Harvest Planning Stage be used to Predict the Frequency of Close Calls and Severe Injuries when Manually Falling Trees?
Category: Occupational Disease, Injury and Health Services
Subcategory: Occupational Injury
Keywords: Hazard, injury, manual tree falling
Link to research website:

Issue:

Historic WorkSafeBC data indicate that manual tree falling has one of the highest frequencies of fatalities and serious injuries in the logging industry, despite the certified faller program. It is still common for fallers to be struck by falling debris or trees. This project aims to reduce the frequency of workers being struck by an object or being caught or compressed by an object.

Objectives:

The project is aimed at identifying occupational hazards at the harvest planning stage in manual tree falling. This will be achieved by developing a hazard matrix using cutblock attributes, weather, and faller demographic data. The goal is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities among tree fallers.

Anticipated Results:

It is anticipated that the research will determine whether predicting hazards or close calls and injuries are significantly correlated with cutblock attributes, weather, and faller demographics. The goal is to match the qualifications of individual fallers to work difficulties likely to be encountered, in order to prevent injuries.

Investigators:

Kevin Lyons (University of British Columbia)