study?

[treeman82]

I was talking with Mike Tain on Saturday afternoon about safety and fatalities in the industry and what not. He told me that some doctor or professor or something out west is doing research on fatalities in the tree business. The number he quoted me with is pretty scary, 1 out of every 150 - 300 tree care workers will die each year. How many tree care workers do you have in your area?

 

[NeTree]

That figure sounds pretty over-inflated to me. I'd be interested in seeing some verifiable staistics, though.

 

[trees4life]

Information I've heard from 2 different trainers recently (both refer to US stats) said that a tree worker dies every 5 days. Pretty scarey.

 

[underwor]

I think the professor you are referring to is John Ball at South Dakota State University. He has been accumulating information for several years now. The numbers mentioned sound about right. I don't know if he has published anything yet on this, but he has given several presentations, including one last fall at TCI in Milwaukee. Most of the injuries and fatalities I believe were "struck bys". Falling or swinging limbs I think lead this category, but also tools.

I will try to find more on this for you.

Bob Underwood

 

[Jumper]

The really scary statistic would be find out how many of those five
fatalities, if indeed the stat is a correct one, were totally preventable with proper education, PPE, use of proper proceedures, hiring of a professional to do a job that was beyond the person's capability, adherance to non-drug and alcohol use on the job, proper sleep/fatigue issues etc. You have to wonder as well how many of those people were truly "tree workers" and not just someone who got killed while they had a chainsaw in their hands or were up a tree working at the time.

 

[treeman82]

Thanks Bob. Mike sent me an e-mail back saying that our own Tom Dunlap may also have information because he said they may be working together on this study, but he was not 100% sure.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Tim Walsh is involved in the research too.

He looks at the site every couple days or so.

 

[Tim Walsh]

We are still trying to get a handle on the actual numbers of fatalities in the arboriculture profession. It is difficult to get accurate, reliable numbers.

I have summarized all of the fatalities that OSHA has recorded from 1984-2002, but this number does not represent all fatalities, not even close actually. OSHA lists 387 fatalities for this time period, but we know that number is low. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has better data, but even that appears not to be complete. BLS lists more than 600 for the last 10 years.

In 2000, OSHA listed 33 fatalities for our profession (SIC code 0783), BLS lists 73. Dr. Ball found, after taking a closer look at the BLS data that the number could be higher, much higher than that.

I am working towards my doctorate with Dr. John Ball, taking a closer look at accidents in the profession. We are looking specifically at struck-bys. I’ll update here as I have new information.

Please stay safe. I don’t want any of you to show up in my research.

TMW

 

[geofore]

study

The insurance companies that pay death benefits should have a different number of deaths they paid on do to tree accidents. Then they only know those who were insured however they keep statistical ranges to apply to rates to charge. I'm not sure you could get that from the MA Board of Insurance data records. Someone at MIT knows the answer to that.

 

[TREETX]

We need some definitions to go with the term "tree care worker"
Is this a certified person? A climber? Or a foreman that dies in a wreck on the way to the dump?

"Death" is a pretty clear one. No need for clarification here.

This info is important to keep. More so to see how to prevent deaths than to let insurance companies know how to screw us to the wall even more.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I would think it would only need be someone who is "for hire" or "employed" in tree work when injured/killed.

Even if it is a temp agency grounds keeping person who was wrongfully employed at a task not properly trained to do.

Tim, maybe a if you could find some way to have journalism students at veariouse schools research newspapers?

 

[TREETX]

Don't throw rocks at me because I can't remember the numbers but today Knut Foppe from www.Climbsafe.de gave a safety presentation.

It had these numbers for America with injuries plus the numbers for injuries and deaths per 5million hours ON ROPE. I will try and bend his ear for some exact numbers when I see him tommorrow.

I think the deaths were zero with injuries being 85.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Nate, I understand that Knute and John Ball are working together. See if he has anything to add on that stuff.

 

[TREETX]

Brief conversation with Knut today as I had already spent way too much cash on toys and needed to get my goodies back to the casa.

He said that he would shoot me some info and links via email.

Next to fishing in the North Sea, tree work is the most dangerous profession in Europe.

Saw the slogan today "Avoid a near MISS"

Macho Ignorant Stupid Situation