Safety Focus

Worker Killed While Welding Wood Chip Conveyor

BACKGROUND: On an early spring day in the Pacific Northwest, three journey level maintenance workers were repairing a 400foot long wood chip conveyor system.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The victim, and the rest of the crew, were experienced workers, fully qualified and able to perform their trade without supervision.

UNSAFE ACTS AND CONDITIONS: The victim was sitting on the conveyor belt welding on a funnel cone at the infeed end and blocked from view from the outfeed end, where the controls were located. Another worker was nearby, welding at the infeed end. A third worker was at the outfeed end of the conveyor, installing grooves in the conveyor belt.

The machine’s controls at the outfeed end had a lockable 480volt switch, but none of the three workers used their individual locks to lock out the switch and prevent its activation. The worker at the outfeed end needed to turn on the machine briefly to reposition the belt. Before doing so, he sent a coworker to see if the conveyor was clear. The coworker saw one worker clear of the conveyor but was unaware of the other worker welding.

ACCIDENT / INJURY: The conveyor was turned on, and the victim was pulled under the metal funnel cone and crushed. He died from the injuries.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORRECTIONS:

l When performing maintenance, always lock out equipment that can unexpectedly start. l Review and follow lock out/tagout procedures prior to working on equipment. Update procedures when necessary. l Make sure all employees are trained on lock out/tagout policies and procedures. l Conduct a job safety analysis (JSA) for those who must work on or around hazardous equipment. A JSA is a systematic method for identifying hazards associated with the job or task.

Originally published by the Washington State Dept. of Labor & Industries. Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.

can Forest and Paper Assn., call the American Loggers Council, because we’re the ones doing it and we know what’s going on.

SLT: What’s been the biggest success or accomplishment in the last 20 years?

DRUCTOR: I’d say the same thing: getting that recognition that loggers deserved and needed. Congress, with the partisan politics, it’s really difficult to get anything done right now, but with very low budgets compared to other organizations, we have managed to get bills introduced and passed over the past 20 years without spending millions of dollars to do so. It is simply because of those relationships in Washington.

SLT: You decided to move on a couple of years ago, right?

DRUCTOR: It’s just time. Things change, people change. I like to tell people I can remember what logging was like before the days of SFI, but now there is a generation and a half ahead of me that doesn’t know anything but what logging has been like since SFI has always been a part of their stuff. I still have some old thoughts and theories about all that that don’t necessarily line up with probably the vision that is needed to move the organization forward. I basically call myself a dinosaur. It’s time to get somebody in there a little more forward thinking than I am to take it to the next level, wherever that is going to be. Twenty years is long enough for someone to sit in this position.

SLT: The 2019 Annual Meeting

26 ➤ that was held in Orange Beach, Ala., was the 25th anniversary of ALC, and it turned out to be, not by design, your last in-person meeting as Executive Director; there was a virtual meeting in 2020 due to the pandemic. Are you planning to be at the Annual Meeting this fall in Coeur d’Alene, for Scott Dane’s first? DRUCTOR: I am going to try. They are going to have a face-toface summer Board meeting in Minneapolis-Saint Paul end of July and that will be the first meeting that Scott at the helm will take over and run, along with the President. SLT: What advice do you have for him about this job, after 20 years of experience? DRUCTOR: Listen to your Board. You’ve got 27 Board members sitting around the table; they’re all good businessmen. The ALC was formed for loggers to represent loggers. So when an issue comes up and you have challenges and decisions to make, you do what the Board says; these guys aren’t in business because they’re not good thinkers with good heads on their shoulders. I would say 99.9% of the time, the decisions on the direction the Board has wanted the American Loggers Council to go have been the correct decisions. We don’t need outside influence from other sectors. Loggers are unique, they have their own businesses to run, they’re their own CEOs, and they know what they’re doing. So when you’re representing loggers, you need to be listening to the loggers telling you what they need. Listen to your Board and everything will be just fine. SLT: What’s next for you, Danny? DRUCTOR: I’m planning on taking some time, do a little fishing, getting my guide license, just settling back a little bit, not worried about Washington, DC. I have already taken a board position with the National Woodland Owners Assn. and plan on not necessarily going to DC but at least talking to them about policy, because I think it is really important. There are issues that forest landowners as well as loggers are facing that they should be joined at the hip on. There’s a need for new markets in order to get not only cut and haul prices up but stumpage prices up as well, and if we’re going to keep people investing in forestry as a whole and forestlands, we gotta do something about that. I think it is high time forest landowners and loggers, both tiers of that stool, work a little bit closer together, and maybe I can help add to that a little bit, from a volunteer basis. SLT