Man falls into chipper and dies/ Colorado

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Chronic1

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LOVELAND - A man who works for a commercial tree trimming company was killed Wednesday when he fell into the shredder.


The accident happened at a work site near the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Fountain Drive. OSHA, the federal agency that investigates accidents that happen on the job, has been called to investigate.

The name of the worker who was killed hasn't been released. Loveland Police will have more information later today.
 
Tree trimmer dies in 'industrial accident'
STORY TOOLS
Email this story | Print By Felix Doligosa Jr., Rocky Mountain News
December 28, 2005
LOVELAND -- Officials are investigating the death of a tree trimming company employee, who was found dead at work after police received a call from the man's co-worker at 1:30 p.m.
A wood chipper with blood stains was taped off near where the body was found. Police would not confirm initial reports that the employee was killed after getting stuck in the wood chipper, but investigators said they consider the death the result of an industrial accident.

The victim was part of a two-man crew trimming a tree at a house located at 2363 Fountain Drive, said Sgt. Rae Bontz of the Loveland Police Department. The man works for Brian's Chipping Service, according to trucks parked at the scene.
Police have not released the victim's name.

Investigators with the coroner's office, the police department and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into the death.
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Whata a terrible story! I fear these things; they can and will kill you. An arborist I know had a crew that was working in town, and one of his employees brought in his 14 year old son on a day off school. The boy got caught up and killed instantly in the shredder. From what I hear these things have no mercy on you. What i want to know is how do most people get pulled in...and is there anything you can do to reduce your chances of getting hurt/killed by one.
 
Diesel JD said:
Whata a terrible story! I fear these things; they can and will kill you. An arborist I know had a crew that was working in town, and one of his employees brought in his 14 year old son on a day off school. The boy got caught up and killed instantly in the shredder. From what I hear these things have no mercy on you. What i want to know is how do most people get pulled in...and is there anything you can do to reduce your chances of getting hurt/killed by one.

The 2 other similar instances I know of were caused when the operator tried to free up a stuck branch. Instead of turning the machine off they reached into the inlet to try and work the wood free while the machine was running. Somehow they got caught on the wood and pulled in.

I get nervous 20 feet away from those machines.:)
 
Diesel JD said:
Whata a terrible story! I fear these things; they can and will kill you. An arborist I know had a crew that was working in town, and one of his employees brought in his 14 year old son on a day off school. The boy got caught up and killed instantly in the shredder. From what I hear these things have no mercy on you. What i want to know is how do most people get pulled in...and is there anything you can do to reduce your chances of getting hurt/killed by one.

Common sense is a good tool to have. That and a "push stick". NEVER stick your hand past the infeed table, use your "push stick". Feed brush from the side, not from behind.
Maybe we should start a chipper safety thread, kind of like MasterBlaster's Excellent Groundman thread. It would be good to have a safety manual written by the guys who use the eqiopment, not just design/build the equipment.
 
While I was filing a saw my wife came out to the garage and told me. Then I saw on the evening news the same info here. Loveland is only 20 minutes away from me, so being this close has me concerned that I may know the tree service, or worse, the person. I saw the truck on the T.V. to try to identify the company, but it was too far away of a shot. Sad stuff.
 
We have a 25hp vermeer and we rented it out 1 time and that will never happen again. The Co. that rented it tied a rope around the auto feed bar and re adjusted the switch so it would auto feed faster . That would scare the s--- out of me. When you work around this thing you have to watch what your doing with no distractions.. just my 2 cents
 
Redbull said:
Common sense is a good tool to have. That and a "push stick". NEVER stick your hand past the infeed table, use your "push stick". Feed brush from the side, not from behind.
Maybe we should start a chipper safety thread, kind of like MasterBlaster's Excellent Groundman thread. It would be good to have a safety manual written by the guys who use the eqiopment, not just design/build the equipment.

Good idea Redbull.
 
Does any one know if the chipper was a self feeder or chuck & duck.
I am only assuming it was a self feeder??
The news report in the KC star was that the 54 yr old owner operator got his glove caught on a branch pulling him to his death.

I own and operate a 12'' aspluhnd chuck & duck.
I have only ran a self feeder 1 time....1250 vermier..I can see how a person could get pulled in without being able to reach for the reverse bar. You almost need 2 people by the machine when feeding.

My sincere condolances go out to the family.
I am very sorry for the loss.
 
Investigators screen off an area at the Loveland home where Wednesday's fatal accident involving a tree shredder occurred. (Post / John Epperson)

Chad Swank was standing in the basket of a cherry-picker truck Wednesday afternoon, using a chain saw to trim branches from a large, dead tree at a house in Loveland.

His boss and longtime tree- trimming partner, Brian Ganiard Morse, was on the ground, feeding the branches into a wood chipper. It was nothing out of the ordinary for the pair, who were both certified tree trimmers and had worked on jobs together off and on for about six years.

Swank started to cut a branch, and, per his usual habit, looked down to make sure the area underneath was clear. That's when he noticed something was wrong.

He saw Morse lying on the hopper of the chipper. Puzzled, Swank said, he thought that Morse must have turned the chipper off and been working on the machine. Swank shut off his saw to check.

But the chipper was still running at full speed. And Morse, his legs motionless, was slowly being pulled into it.

"So many things go through your mind at that point," Swank said.

Frantic, Swank swung one leg out of the basket, then the other until he was hanging from the basket. He let go and fell about 15 to 20 feet.

He sprinted to the chipper, but he knew there was nothing he could do.

"It's one of those things I'm still kind of numb to," Swank said Thursday. "I don't know how to feel quite yet. ... It's one of those things where you don't believe what is happening is happening."

On Thursday, Morse's family and friends, fellow arborists and authorities tried to better understand an accident that has attracted so much attention for its pure shock value.

The Larimer County coroner's office conducted an autopsy, and, using fingerprints, they officially identified Morse, the 54-year-old owner of Brian's Tree Trimming and Removal Service in Loveland, as the victim.

Following the autopsy, the coroner's office released a statement saying the victim was pulled entirely through the chipper. "Total morselization" is how the statement put it.

Since there were no witnesses to the start of the accident, investigators are speculating that Morse got a glove caught in the chipper and couldn't get free.

"What took place before the glove got caught is what we're still trying to look into," said Dean Beers, an investigator with the coroner's office.

Beers said the chipper had a handle that, when activated, would reverse the movement of the chipper's feeder gears. It is unclear whether Morse could have reached the handle when the accident occurred.

Swank, as well as the owner of another tree service in Loveland, said Morse was exceptionally careful.

"He was a very good Christian man who always emphasized safety," Swank said. "It was an accident. We don't call them intentionals."

Even in an exceptionally perilous job such as tree trimming, the dangers of the wood chipper stand out, said Roy Barnhart, who owns Roy's Tree Service in Loveland and who knew Morse. The chipper in this accident, a Vermeer BC1250A, has the capacity to shred trees up to a foot in diameter, according to its manufacturer. It would probably take only a few seconds for the chipper's blades to turn such a tree into mulch, Barnhart said.

Meanwhile, the gears that grab branches and pull them toward the blades are unforgiving.

"The human body has no chance" if something gets caught, Barnhart said.

Morse leaves behind his wife, a son and two grandsons, about whom he talked constantly, Swank said.

Morse enjoyed jogging and had run several marathons.

Barnhart said Morse was something of a perfectionist.

"He was a man who loved his work," Barnhart said. "He was a man who was very particular in how he did things. That's why it's hard to understand how this happened, because he was very careful all the time."

Quote stolen off another tree site with a forum, so I can't say where.
 
When you read something like this (whether about chippers or any other dangerous activity), one of the things that goes through your mind is, "Could I be next?". Then we read that the deceased did something really stupid, like climbing up on a running chipper to free a stuck branch by kicking it, and we think, "Oh. OK. I would never be that stupid, so I'm safe." We may not put it in words, and we may not even realize we are thinking that way, but it's there.


Then you read one like this:

"He was a man who was very particular in how he did things. That's why it's hard to understand how this happened, because he was very careful all the time."

Poof. There go our illusions. It could happen to me.


Very sad.


Life is short. Then what?
 
okay, this might sound stupid, but would it be reasonable to build a chipper where the infead contains some kind of sensor and operator wears some kind of bracelet and when the bracelet passes the sensor, the chipper automatically shuts off? its not complicated technology by any means, and I dont see that it would be cumbersome. but maybe there's a reason something like this doesnt exist
 
I remember that question being asked on a forum before, don't remember the outcome. But it does sound like something doable. Some folks would either disable it and get hurt anyway or just not use it...that's OK, that's what Darwin is all about.

BRMark is right...I am pretty safety conscious, too, but have had some close calls...usually when I am distracted (not focused) or trying to do things too fast.
 
What do you all think of the coroners grim little joke played on the family, with his cause of death? Moselization of the body, get it? The guys name was morse...get it? He got morselized... I bet his family got quite a little laugh when they read that in the paper, hey?
 

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