Mill accident

[backwoods sawyer]

An accident at a local sawmill claimed the life of a 38yr man Mr. Dodge. I worked alongside his Dad who was superintendant of the Noti sawmill and met his son on a couple occasions.

He was crushed when two automated pieces of equipment moved :(

The lock out tag out system saves lives when everyone uses it.

Yes we all are working in one of the most dangerous professions, stay safe everyone.

[dgdrls]

Very sad indeed. 

be careful everyone

DGDrls

[buzywoodliff]

Prayers from michigan.....

[drobertson]

hate to hear news like this, very sad, and as you said, Lock out tags must be employed and properly signed out!

[Compensation]

Yep, locks are cheap and lives are priceless. Sure makes me think about the times at work where nothing was locked out because it was so simple and quick. I'm happy I have 7 locks that belong to me and only me.

[dboyt]

So sad-- 38 is way too young.  Lots of ways to get hurt for sure.  Thank you for the reminder.  My prayers are with the family.

[justallan1]

Also install lockouts on air where applicable. Once while laying in a set of trimsaws  to change saws, (After I had locked out the control panel) the boss of all people kicked on the air, actuating all the saws. I only got a small cut on my forearm out of the deal, but only because my arm was in front of the saw not underneath it.
We all know that saws don't have to be spinning to hurt you.

Allan

[landscraper]

I just renewed my OSHA 10 hour card and there is a whole section devoted to lock outs.  We all cut corners sometimes, or sometimes others cut corners and we don't know.  Either way tragedy strikes on it's own fickle schedule.  Sad to think of someone so young and those he left behind.

[thecfarm]

I had that LOTO,Lock Out Tag Out training and used it. Anything that was on the machine that I was working had my lock on it. Be it,air,electricity,hyds,high pressure water, or whatever. I had the only key to it. We was assigned locks. I think I had 5 locks. If someone came to help me,their lock HAD to be put on too.
I hate to hear stories like that.

[backwoods sawyer]

several years ago I went into an interveiw for a sawyers position and as the forman was giving me the once over of the headrig controls between shifts when he started flipping switchs things started moving and the clean up man made a haisty retreat from the convayor below the headrig He had two locks on and needed four and supervisor had been aware of the issue for some time and it looked like the lack of lock issue still would not be resolved.

There were other issues as well so I passed on that job.

The plant I worked at LOTO was done by the book every time.

And when we were cross traing sawyers at Noti LOTO was by the book and Mr Dodge had a fresh copy and a warning for anyone who was slacking.

[red oaks lumber]

sad just sad

[rooster 58]

Locks are cheap. Lives are priceless. It's very sad to read news like this..... :(

[Dave Shepard]

I've got some of those gadgets around here somewhere. A little clamp that goes through the hole on the disconnect with room for six locks.

[thecfarm]

@dave,red?? I always used them. Than I did not have to take my lock off and THAN put one on. We also had to have out name on them too.

[Dave Shepard]

I've got it somewhere. It's probably a galvanized part, with red plastic on the part where the locks go. Google Image Search comes up with a Master 421 Safety Lockout Hasp.

[thecfarm]

Ayup,that be it. I think we all had 5-6 locks that was keyed alike. All the locks was red.

[wildbill]

i have about a dozen locks i use.  orange, yellow and red. (colors dont mean anything to us).  all have my radio number and my name on them.  after working with a couple guys that lost fingers from NOT locking things out i became very careful about using locks.  it is at the point now that a lot of my co-workers get annoyed with me putting locks everywhere (even if there is already a lock, i want mine on there also if i have to work on it too)

so far i still have all my pieces and my life.  it takes seconds to shut down a knife switch and install a lock.  could be the most important decision you make.

[Dave Shepard]

I met a man who operated a pressbrake, I think for GE. It had straps that hooked to your hands, so that as the brake came down, it would pull your hands out of the dies. He bypassed them. He now has a thumb and pinky finger on each hand. 

[rooster 58]

   We had different colored locks also, that were department specific. Red was a general lock. Green for production workers. Black for maintenance. And gold for electricians. We also had tags that went on the lock or hasp. you had to put the date and your name on the tag. If for some reason you didn't remove your lock after the maintenance was done, the only way that equipment could be put in service was they had to call you at home for permission to remove your lock ;)

[Alligator]

A Sawmill are such a dangerous place. This makes me so sad. The age when I change occupations. I want to repost one of my early post about the danger of a sawmill, but don't have the heart. If you want it's "Danger Danger" . There is no such thing as too careful on a sawmill yard, not just in the mill, but on the yard.

BE CAREFUL logs will roll up hill to kill you

[backwoods sawyer]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,75477.msg1144975.html#msg1144975 Danger Danger is good read.

Working night shift our clean up guy a long time employee would come in a hour before the shift was over and always started cleaning up around the planer.

The 16,000 forklifts ran back and forth between the sawmill, and planer buildings to feed the planer.

The clean up guy was wearing a dark hoody crossing the roadway at the cross walk, when the forklift was backing thru the roadway in second gear with a double stack (3,000 bft) for the infeed.

He was life flighted out to portland, I drove his wife up to be with him, and made more trips over the corse of his recovery. The forklift ran over both his legs. Two years later he was able to walk some with out crutches.

Lighted vest, improved lighting, changing the cross walk to a more visable location, back up alarms were some of the changes that followed.

Being proactive in safety, fixing unsafe situations as you recocognize, seems to be the best aproach.