Virginia chipper age law| 14yo chipped to death

Eric Frei

This is a horrible accident. A 14 year old boy was sucked into a chipper and killed instantly.

Says he got pulled in by the blades and was using a shovel. well, I originally thought it was a chunk n' duck style chipper but it is not. so how the shovel got in contact with the blades is a mystery, this looks like a Vermeer 18" + chipper. Maybe it has lift and crush and he had the feed rollers wide open???



Video:
Poquoson wood chipper death inquiry likely to bring citations - Daily Press

Now in the news link it states.

Whole story:-

Va Company Cited For Fatal Wood Chipper Accident - wjz.com

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Eric Frei

Under closer inspection it did have lift and crush, and it;s not a vermeer.

So he definitely had the rollers wide open and as it's a fair reach from the feed table to the knives he must have got onto the feed table and leaned in. Likely then it's a drum style machine??? Maybe a woodsman or Conehead or something like that. A disc machine wont suck you in.

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second-gen_monkey

ok, i know this might seem a little cold but if it's a rear loader why are you using a shovel? i've done ground work since i was 12. i first encountered a wood chipper at 13 and immediately noticed that i would have to lean over the machine to clear debris or push smaller peices to the rollers. even then i knew not to use a metal object, wear flared gloves or load from directly behind the machine, it's all on the stickers that say WARNING: YOU WILL DIE IF YOU DO THIS!. i have ben snagged by a fork for not minding my loading direction when loading a smaller pile of stems and twigs but i stay positioned so that i hit the stop bar so matter how i may go in, keeping myself as close to the stop bar as possible means i don't have to reach up or down and i can hit it effectively with any part of my body if i'm awake or will be dragged into the stop bar if i'm out. i've always used vemeers though so the design makes this easy.
whoever was having that kid load the chipper should have been close by, close enough to be sure that their employee, friend, son or whatever wasnt loading from directly behind or having to lean over too far to load off angle or from the side. and if they had the boy shovling small debris such as the sticks left in the bottom at the end of the day into the chipper they are just wrong for that. there's plenty of better ways to clean the chute, be it a leafy branch that's been selected and put off to the side for the purpose (if you get a good sized branch with thin stems and lion tail it before feeding it will drag most of the leftovers in) or a blower, rather than shoving a tool in there and risking being pulled in.

it's a shame people have to go out for such stupid reasons and it affects us all. it's also a shame that this probly could have been prevented simply by reading the warnings and using common sense. again, i've done landscaping and tree work essentally my whole life. i have done stupid things (lost the very tip of two fingers to a lawn mower, only about 3/16") and paid the price, but there are somethings that come simply from inexperience on the part of one person and lack of attention on the part of their more experienced co-worker, friend or family member. being inexperienced is forgiveable, essentially letting someone die because you didn't want to explain basic safety rules and the lessons you've learned through experience is not.

i work with my father, he's my boss and my co-worker at work but he's everyones safety coach all the time. there have been plenty of times (especially in these past two years that i've been learning the monkey aspect of it) that he has stopped me just because it looked like i might be about to do something stupid. and there have been a couple times i've ignored him and paid for it (fell from a ladder for that one). every morning i learn something new about keeping myself alive, like making sure the monkey suit (harness for the bucket truck and poll cat) is properly adjusted so i dont break my back instead of my fall. every peice of equiptment comes with a free 2 hour discussion as to what can go wrong, evertyhing from accidental fires in a chipper drum to signs of chain wear and the possibility of one breaking. thankfully most of the scenarios presented (poll cat tipping over) have never happened but i beleive that is due to the safety breif. my dad says he's just keeping us informed but the thought of comming down with a 50' lift keeps you on your toes too.

Drouin Tree Service

Looks like a early 90's bandit 250,Sad death such dangerous machines.

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