# Tragedy in Wisconsin



## deerlakejens (Aug 16, 2006)

Man killed in wood chipper accident

A 30-year-old man was killed this afternoon when he was sucked into a wood chipper while trying to shake loose a piece of wood that had jammed it.

The man owned a tree service company working in the 8900 block of 26th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie, according to a Pleasant Prairie Police Department press release.

The man was using his foot to clear debris that had jammed the wood chipper around 5:20 p.m. when his foot became entangled in the machine, witnesses told police.

His coworkers tried to rescue him from the intake, but he was pulled into and through the wood chipper, according to the release.

The incident remains under investigation by Pleasant Prairie detectives, the Kenosha County Medical Examiner's office and officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Police withheld the man's name while they attempted to notify his family


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## musch (Aug 16, 2006)

Wow. Not far from me.
Pray for his family
That is absolutely horrible.
There is no limit to always remembering good sense and safety first.
Best wishes to all you pros out there in harms way daily.


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## 314epw (Aug 16, 2006)

*not much to say*

*After you read something like that,my head starts going through all the safety rules that we should follow.It happened at 5pm,the man was probably tired and wanted just to go home.
Ed*


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## l2edneck (Aug 16, 2006)

*Thoughts and prayers.....*

:bang: once again just proves this is a very hazardous occupation so remember it can all happen in a second.Take all you have to be as safe as possible.


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## Oly's Stump (Aug 16, 2006)

The victim is Jerimiah Sanders owner of Quality Tree Service. I sub-contracted all his stumps. He was also a good friend of mine. I was not at the scene when this occurred but arrived shortly thereafter. He made a major mistake while chipping brush with a Morback Model 13 Hurricane chipper. Jerimiah made a big mistake and used his foot to push a short large chunk of log into the chipper. The wheels grabbed his foot and pulled him into the chipper. The reverse bar did not work at the time this accident occurred. It was reported to have been working earlier prior to the accident. Five other workers on the scene attempted to help Jerimiah but his entire body was pulled into the chipper. He was 6'7" tall. This was a real night mare. I still cannot believe it happened. Guys please be careful out there.


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## Jumper (Aug 16, 2006)

Sad to hear of this accident-all the more so because it was 100% preventable. As mentioned elsewhere, it likely was a situation where he just wanted to wrap up the work day asap. RIP

As an aside, I worked one day for a company that wanted 12+ hour days so they could have a four day week. I declined their offer of permanent employment after my "tryout" day as I just could not see their operation being a very safe one after the eight hour point, especially on hot summer days.


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## Wizazz (Aug 18, 2006)

Thats a Horrible way to go. 
I known this Guy many years... Good Guy... Good drinking buddy.
I live Down the street here from where it happened. Police and rescue were all leaving the scene Puking and Sick from the sight of what happen.... Most of them never seen something like that so Horrific. And all the police and emergency workers that took the call had to get a few days off after the inncident to get councelling.

The Guy's Name Is...

"Jeremiah P. Sanders"


Everyone Pray For his Family.... And God rest his Soul.:angel:


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## Log hog (Aug 18, 2006)

*Why?*

WOW! Only 3 hours from me. I can't even fathom what that seen would of been like for the man it happened to and the people working with there. It sounds so disturbing. I have a Morbark 2012 Storm 12", I have to discipline my employees every so often about pushing things into the chipper with there hands. I say use a rake or big grain shovel. I can't understand why you would bring your leg up and try and kick a log into the feed shoot. That's just crazy. No matter how many stickers they throw on a machine, some one always thinks "it wont happen to me". I feel very bad for there family and pray for them. On my chipper there is a emergency stop button that kills the motor and the feed wheels immediately, its located right above the feed wheel reversal bar. And it works because I and one of my employees have bumped it on accident before. I tell them no matter how Strong you think you are the feed wheels will pull you in. Lets all be safe out there guy and girls.


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## tazz001 (Aug 19, 2006)

Oh man...bad nasty way to go. My heart goes out to the family and friends of this poor fella!!

Please oh please make sure anyone who uses this type of equipment or any peice of equipment never ever get lazy and disregard safety instruction!!

Accidents can and will happen to the best when rules and safety isn't followed.

Condolences to all who knew and loved this man.


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## boo (Aug 19, 2006)

Sorry to hear another tragedy, my sympathy for the loved ones.

A push stick with holder (round metal tube) welded close to the mouth of the chipper would help encourage use.
paint it red, mount it in view in reach.


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## Eagle1 (Aug 19, 2006)

"Pulled in and though the chipper"?? Wow....God bless anyone who saw that, friends and family. My God!!


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## Plant Manager (Aug 20, 2006)

Wow,

One can only imagine! I still get nausiated when I think of this. 2 Kids a wife and another child on the way trying to make a buck doing somthing he enjoyed doing.

Lesson to be learned..... If or when the reverse wheels are not working a 100% please stop and turn it off!!!! The job can wait another day. Nothing and I repeat nothing is as important as going home.

Most all our equipment has the potential to kill. Use it knowing this. If it is'nt working right please get it fixed. I learned my lesson and it only cost me a couple dozen stitches yet like Jerimiah I wanted to get home with the job done. I was lucky as have been most of you. We all have at least one story.
The hopeful thing is to be able to tell it. 

Prayers for Jerimiah's family, freinds, Co-workers, and customers who saw this horrible accident and the first care providers who arrived on the scene only hoping to be of help.

Lets all get to work tomorrow with our gaurd up, Jerimiah in our thoughts, and his family and freinds in our prayers.

Lets all be SAFE out there!!


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## John Paul Sanborn (Aug 27, 2006)

Brings to mind Tom D's watch words for safe operations

Widows and orphans.

There is enough risk in our day to day operations to do things that will increase them so much.

Didn't Kenny say he laminated a story like this for his people to read?

Another though for stopping the infee, would taking the PTO out stop them, or would it just keep pumping? Kill the engine?


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Aug 27, 2006)

If the feed wheel controller failed, turning down the throttle would at least stop them. I don't know if disengaging the clutch would stop them on a Morbark.
It's just so horrible, and happens so fast, who's going to have the presence of mind to think about the different ways to stop the feed wheels. 
When running a chipper, one uses the feed wheel controller quite frequently. How could he not know it didn't work? It seems improbable that it just happen to break at the one time something happened.
God bless his family.


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## Log hog (Aug 27, 2006)

I am not sure of all the details. At McDonalds for breakfast with my son yesterday and me a a gent were talking about the accident and he said he read that the chipper he was using was a rental. His chipper was in the shop being fixed, any truth to this or not. Regardless don't kick your foot in the feed shoot. If this is true about the rental company, some body is in serious trouble. Just some scary crap. I was on line and they interviewed the home owner and the nephew, very sad to watch, very. I pray that all of you out there realize how dangerous our profession is. I was at a Vermeer/Climbing seminar on Friday and they told us that the Police Force and the Fire departments jobs rank lower than ours for danger, and the chance for death.


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## RedlineIt (Aug 27, 2006)

Most sincere condolences to the family and to those who witnessed this horrific event. You have my heartfelt sympathy and profound wishes for personal recovery from this tragic event.

---------------------------

Yours,

RedlineIt


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## Lorra (Aug 27, 2006)

Log hog said:


> I am not sure of all the details. At McDonalds for breakfast with my son yesterday and me a a gent were talking about the accident and he said he read that the chipper he was using was a rental. His chipper was in the shop being fixed, any truth to this or not. Regardless don't kick your foot in the feed shoot. If this is true about the rental company, some body is in serious trouble. Just some scary crap. I was on line and they interviewed the home owner and the nephew, very sad to watch, very. I pray that all of you out there realize how dangerous our profession is. I was at a Vermeer/Climbing seminar on Friday and they told us that the Police Force and the Fire departments jobs rank lower than ours for danger, and the chance for death.



Geez this forum is interesting. A thought occurred to me after reading the last sentence of the above post. When a police officer or firefighter dies in the line of duty, it almost always has nothing to do with making a very stupid decision or being very irresponsible. I've been reading about tree service fatalities, and 100 percent of the time, it's the result of poor choices, irresponsibility, not thinking, being careless, not following safety protocol, etc.
When that poor cop pulls over a speeder and walks toward the driver's car, and the driver shoots him in the chest, the officer didn't do anything stupid or careless. He was doing what he was trained to do. But nobody is trained to put their foot in a chipper or tie in wrong in a tree. And a firefighter is trained to go into a burning building---nothing careless about that, that's his job.
The most dangerous profession doesn't have to be so dangerous, if people would just think instead of getting ahead of themselves. It's like driving. Some people will flip a car over. And others never will.


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## boo (Aug 27, 2006)

Lorra said:


> Geez this forum is interesting. A thought occurred to me after reading the last sentence of the above post. When a police officer or firefighter dies in the line of duty, it almost always has nothing to do with making a very stupid decision or being very irresponsible. I've been reading about tree service fatalities, and 100 percent of the time, it's the result of poor choices, irresponsibility, not thinking, being careless, not following safety protocol, etc.
> When that poor cop pulls over a speeder and walks toward the driver's car, and the driver shoots him in the chest, the officer didn't do anything stupid or careless. He was doing what he was trained to do. But nobody is trained to put their foot in a chipper or tie in wrong in a tree. And a firefighter is trained to go into a burning building---nothing careless about that, that's his job.
> The most dangerous profession doesn't have to be so dangerous, if people would just think instead of getting ahead of themselves. It's like driving. Some people will flip a car over. And others never will.



That's not a very good way to make friends here.... Lorra.
Not a very smart and/or accurate statement you made there, if you've read much at all. (100 percent?!)
I could go on about how equipment fails, cops don't get shot at every day, and firefighters don't fight fires every day.... unlike tree workers.
I'm sure you would have a better appreciation, respect and understanding if your occupation was that of a person in the tree service industry.
Do it.... THEN bragg about it.  
Maybe one day we will all be as perfect as you, until then we will strive harder for such perfection.


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## woodchux (Aug 27, 2006)

I think that the main cause of accidents in our profession is exhaustion.

It's some incredibly difficult work !

Be Safe-


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 27, 2006)

boo said:


> That's not a very good way to make friends here.... Lorra.
> Not a very smart and/or accurate statement you made there, if you've read much at all. (100 percent?!)




Lorra's not 100% right. But she's not 100% wrong, either. Cops DO get themselves killed by being stupid sometimes, and I'm sure that some tree accidents happen that are NOT the result of stupidity - just the result of doing dangerous things day in and day out. Sooner or later, the law of averages is going to catch somebody. A spar or rope that looked good unexpectedly breaks, a machine fails when it shouldn't, etc.


But look at all the posts in this forum. How many of these accidents were NOT a result of doing something stupid? What's the percentage of death by stupidity vs. death by ordinary risks of the job? Yeah, I understand exhaustion. It DOES make us stupid. BTDT. But it's still stupid.


The only thing more dangerous than stupidity is complacency.


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## Lorra (Aug 27, 2006)

boo said:


> That's not a very good way to make friends here.... Lorra.
> Not a very smart and/or accurate statement you made there, if you've read much at all. (100 percent?!)
> I could go on about how equipment fails, cops don't get shot at every day, and firefighters don't fight fires every day.... unlike tree workers.
> I'm sure you would have a better appreciation, respect and understanding if your occupation was that of a person in the tree service industry.
> ...



My take on all this is partly based on the responses I've seen in this forum, over time, whenever someone reports an accident, whether the worker died or was seriously, or even minorly injured. The backlash is incredible. The victim gets called every name in the book. I've read references to the gene pool. All sorts of derogatory remarks in reference to a worker who makes a poor decision, and ends up in a near-death circumstance. The one that immediately comes to mind was the newspaper article that someone posted, of a tree worker who was hanging for two hours. There was a photo of him hanging, and his ladder was out of reach. The backlash was never-ending. Yes, equipment fails and the manufacturer is at fault. But every tree-fall incident I've read, or incident in which someone on the ground gets hit by falling branches, involves poor judgment--not my opinion, but the opinion of other arborists reviewing the accident, speculating about cause, improper rigging, improper knots, not wearing chaps, this and that. The word "idiot" and other similar words come up a lot. I rarely hear "law of averages" or "everything was done properly." So that's where my perspective comes from. Though cops and firefighters don't do dangerous things every day eight hours a day, I was referring to percentage of fatalities relative to time spent on the job.


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## boo (Aug 27, 2006)

I side with the loved ones.
Most of us make even the common mistakes once in a while.
I guess people are going to talk, and finger point etc.
Hopefully I won't be the case where my wife or kid reads about my death....
A Widow may not take so kindly to your words or anyone finger pointing or insulting.


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## Lorra (Aug 27, 2006)

boo said:


> I side with the loved ones.
> Most of us make even the common mistakes once in a while.
> I guess people are going to talk, and finger point etc.
> Hopefully I won't be the case where my wife or kid reads about my death....
> A Widow may not take so kindly to your words or anyone finger pointing or insulting.



I have noticed that the blaming and fingerpointing, the hard comments, are almost always directed at the workers who survive, of course, what could have been a lot worse. It's easy, then, to get tough on them as far as what is said about them, because we all know that they have that second chance, and assumingly they have learned their lesson. Even driving to work downtown every day is extremely hazardous, based on statistics. How often do we pass by a big car accident? I see them all the time. In fact, what's really common out here is there is always a hiker who somehow, falls down a steep slope and dies. One every three or four weeks, it seems. I just don't know how this can happen, and I hike all the time in the backcountry. Well, enough of my rambling. I respect your jobs and am still considering getting into it to some extent.


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## Oly's Stump (Aug 28, 2006)

I would like to add more to my earlier post and also reply to some of the replies since. The chipper that was involved was not a rental chipper but owned by another local tree service that was sub-contracted to chip Jeremiah's (victim's) brush. I have first hand knowledge of this information because I knew the victim and the owner of the chipper. The chipper was a 2002 Morbark Tornado 15" chipper and not a hurricane as I earlier reported. The victim was just starting out his business and was in his second season. He did not own a chipper or stump grinder and sub-contracted out for these services. I ground all his stumps. Jeremiah has five years tree experience and learned his climbing from working with other tree firms. As for the the reverse bar working or not I can only say that the owner of the chipper said that it was working earlier that day and one of his employee's (nephew to the victim) said it had been working moments prior to the incident. OSHA has the chipper impounded as of this time for their investigation. The five workers at the incident did not shut down the motor, did not pull the clutch lever, nor did anyone attempt to reverse the wheels by hand with the linkage. The reverse bar did not work and it was reported that the workers attempted to pull the victim out of the chipper without success. I was told that they paniced. I had personally advised the victim on prior occasions about using his foot as a push stick and also unsafe tying in while climbing. Jeremiah made a big mistake that cost him is life and why he did not listen to other suggestions regarding safety still amazes me.
I can also comment on the replies involving police officer dangers and killings. I am presently a detective with the Kenosha WI police Dept with nearly 30 years law enforcement with my retirement 4 months away to give me more time in the tree business. I have know officers that were killed just because they wear the uniform or what they represent. Believe me if someone wanted to kill any police officer it would not be difficult. You can be easily shot during a traffic stop, responding to a call, getting out of your car to get a cop of joe at the cafe or just about anywhere or anytime. Cops have been killed because what they represent and not who they were. Cops do make mistakes and are killed because of it just like any other job I guess.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Aug 30, 2006)

Lorra said:


> I have noticed that the blaming and fingerpointing, the hard comments, are almost always directed at the workers who survive,



The whyfor of my stick post at the top of the forum, can you imagine that it's actually toned down?!?

I'll readilly agree with you Lorra, most of my near misses, all of those that I've posted, are from me being stupid or inatentive to my work. Most are Friday afternoon F-ups.

Most other industry problems are the same, repetative tasks where a step was eliminated.

Here it's he did not flip in while re-tieing, carpentry is he did not use a push stick on the tablesaw.

It took me years to get the doublecheck habit ingrained. Then there is allways the time where it slipps and I think how lucky I got.

Brian F. would allways say it usually takes 2 mistakes to to screw up big in this industry. In my experiance it's usually true, we have enough reducnacy built in.

Climbing on the feed tray, holding on to the feed control bar and pushing with your foot?

I've often thought, lately, that maybe that's what caused the malfunction that the crew found. He held on so tight that it bent the bar.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Aug 30, 2006)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> Lorra's not 100% right. But she's not 100% wrong, either.



Off the top of my head I can think of 2 deaths that were not due to pure stupidity.

One was Dr. Pete (Last Name???) out east, a Dr. at Renssellier PTI who became fascinated with the dynamics of tree work. He had a lightning struck pine fail while rigging it out. The found mention of the defect in his notes and he actually went higher to rig smaller. Did not help.

A few days later an arborist in GA goes to look at a tree in a ladies back yard. It had just stormed and the soil was saturated. Clear blue sky, light wind.. the tree fell over on him with the lady watching


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 30, 2006)

boo said:


> I side with the loved ones.
> Most of us make even the common mistakes once in a while.
> I guess people are going to talk, and finger point etc.
> Hopefully I won't be the case where my wife or kid reads about my death....
> A Widow may not take so kindly to your words or anyone finger pointing or insulting.




I rather doubt they are on this forum reading about it.  The purpose of discussing it here is to help those who are still alive to stay that way, by helping all of us learn to avoid the kind of mistakes that get people killed.


Pretending that all is well helps *NOBODY*. If somebody reads about this and the only thing they see is, "Well, what a tragedy! Very sad. Couldn't be helped, of course. Nobody is to blame." they won't learn anything that might save their life. On the other hand, if they see a lot of people talking about how avoidable it was, they just might remember that the next time they are tempted to climb on a running chipper.


In other words, *calling it for what it is might save a life*, and AVOID having more widows and orphans to feel sorry for. Somehow I don't understand how that is not "siding with the loved ones". 

I rather suspect if they could choose to have someone go back and tell THEIR loved one that he's being stupid, in time to save his life, they'd do it now and worry about his hurt feelings later.

I've got a good friend who killed her husband and son by tailgating. I've never told her that, and I never will. It would serve no purpose.

But I damn sure tell OTHER people, hoping that it might save someone else's life. It's too late for that man and his son, but it's not too late for others to learn from that needless death and suffering.


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## boo (Aug 30, 2006)

BlueRidgeMark said:


> I rather doubt they are on this forum reading about it.  The purpose of discussing it here is to help those who are still alive to stay that way, by helping all of us learn to avoid the kind of mistakes that get people killed.
> 
> 
> Pretending that all is well helps *NOBODY*. If somebody reads about this and the only thing they see is, "Well, what a tragedy! Very sad. Couldn't be helped, of course. Nobody is to blame." they won't learn anything that might save their life. On the other hand, if they see a lot of people talking about how avoidable it was, they just might remember that the next time they are tempted to climb on a running chipper.
> ...


where do you get pretending all is well?
how do know his family does'nt read here?
what makes you think he did'nt know better?
It's all in the approach... who's going to listen to some ego motivated, bull headed, 20 something, know it all? 
I've found that in those cases, the more they talk, the dumber they seem.
those are normally the ones that get hurt or killed.


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 30, 2006)

TreeCo said:


> John I have often thought that the feed bars on our chippers work just the opposite of how they should.
> 
> When the feed bar is pulled the feed wheels should reverse.....and when pushed the feed wheels should feed the machine.
> 
> A person who gets a foot caught in a feed roller or hung up in a limb is going to have a hard if not impossible time 'pushing' on the feed bar to stop feeding. More likely is a death grip on the feed bar in a futile attempt at keeping from being pulled in...... At feed rates of over 100 feet per minute there is not much time to think once caught.




Somebody, 'splain that to me, will you? I don't know how these are set up, but I'm picturing a bar that is in the back of the feed chute. 

If that's where it is, then pushing it toward the machine, i.e., in the same direction that limbs go into the chute, should STOP the machine. So, if someone is pulled in and grabs the bar, the pull of the machine pulls him AND the bar in the STOP direction. No thinking required. You just do the instinctive thing - grab and hold on for dear life. Someone running up to help simply has to crash into the bar to stop things - they don't have to really think, or reverse direction.

Also, such an arrangement would stop the machine unintentionally when branches get dragged into it. I'm sure that would lead to the bar being disabled, after just a few of those occurrences!


But if it works the OTHER way, it's counter-instinctive and much less likely to be engaged successfully in an emergency.

So, how DOES it work?


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## BlueRidgeMark (Aug 30, 2006)

Hey, no problem Dan. If you aren't good at explaining things, I understand.


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## boo (Aug 30, 2006)

TreeCo said:


> John I have often thought that the feed bars on our chippers work just the opposite of how they should.
> 
> When the feed bar is pulled the feed wheels should reverse.....and when pushed the feed wheels should feed the machine.
> 
> A person who gets a foot caught in a feed roller or hung up in a limb is going to have a hard if not impossible time 'pushing' on the feed bar to stop feeding. More likely is a death grip on the feed bar in a futile attempt at keeping from being pulled in...... At feed rates of over 100 feet per minute there is not much time to think once caught.


agreed.
similar to operating a wood splitter, when a finger gets pinched. i.e. in a prior split, that is still attached to the log.(split peices should not be left on log while plitting)
natural action is to pull down harder on lever to pull the other, pinched hand free. similar to holding on to direction control bar while feeding.
a problem with your chipper feed direction is when a forked, or curved limb feeds in, could hit against the direction control bar, wedging tight.


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## TackleTree (Aug 31, 2006)

I pray for his family and friends. Such a tradgedy. Please respect the trade of tree work, and all its big machines. Be safe, be careful, and be home at night.


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