Kingston OH Tree Death $12500 Fine | Buzzell Tree Service

Ekka · 9th June 2008, 08:18 AM

East Kingston tree company agrees to pay $12,500 fine in worker's death - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Quote:

East Kingston tree company agrees to pay $12,500 fine in worker's death
By James A. Kimble
Staff writer

KINGSTON, N.H. — An East Kingston tree removal company has agreed to pay $12,500 in federal fines for workplace hazards that led to one of its workers being killed on the job.

The U.S. Labor Department agreed to a settlement with Buzzell Tree Service that would downgrade two of its nine workplace violations, spokesman John Chavez said.

Labor officials initially fined the business $19,250 after an 82-foot pine tree fell on Jon LaVigueur, 22, of Kingston, killing him almost immediately. The workplace accident happened Aug. 7, outside a home on 15th Street in Kingston.

LaVigueur and three other men were pulling a rope tied to the tree while another worker used a chain saw to cut into the trunk, witnesses said. The tree fell forward, striking LaVigueur in the back and killing him, a day short of his 23rd birthday.

Chavez said the business is being allowed to pay the fine in installments. The Labor Department will keep its case open until the fine is fully paid, he said.

Federal officials cited the business for a lack of employee training and safety equipment, and said the business should have known about the potential hazards on its work site.

A criminal investigation into LaVigueur's death is still underway by the Rockingham County attorney's office and Kingston police.

More about the incident from Feb 2008

KINGSTON: OSHA fines tree removal company after worker's death - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Quote:

KINGSTON — Federal safety regulators have fined an East Kingston tree removal company $19,250, six months after a 22-year-old employee was killed by a falling tree.

The U.S. Department of Labor said Maurice Buzzell, doing business as Buzzell Tree Service, committed seven serious violations that likely played a factor in the death of Jon LaVigueur, 22, of Kingston.

Two other lesser violations cited the company for workplace safety hazards.

Workers were cutting an 82-foot pine tree Aug. 7 outside a home on 15th Street in Kingston when LaVigueur was killed.

One worker used a chain saw to cut into the trunk while LaVigueur and three others began pulling the rope tied to the tree, according to witnesses.

The tree fell toward the men, striking a fleeing LaVigueur in the back. He was a day short of his 23rd birthday.

The two most costly fines, at $7,000 each, were handed down after federal investigators concluded the crew was not wearing safety helmets and that the workers were positioned so the tree was being pulled toward them.

Safety regulators said Buzzell knew or should have known of the hazards at his work site. Federal citations said he operated the work site with either intentional disregard or indifference to employee safety. The citations addressed work practices and a lack of training and protective equipment for the workers.

Investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration claims Buzzell failed to:

n Assess the work area to see if there were hazards that would require workers to wear protective equipment.

n Make sure each employee wore foot protection such as heavy-duty logging boots.

n Provide first-aid kits at work sites where trees were being cut.

n Start chain saws on the ground.

n Make sure brakes were engaged on the chain saw when it was started.

Buzzell, of East Kingston, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A criminal investigation is being conducted.

Yesterday, Rockingham County Attorney James Reams said he could not comment on an open investigation. In August, Kingston police said they began investigating the matter with the help of county prosecutors and state police.

OSHA officials served the citations to Buzzell personally on Feb. 11. As of yesterday, he had not responded to any of the complaints.

Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman, said yesterday that Buzzell had 15 business days to notify federal authorities if he will contest the findings or try to settle the case.

If he contests the charges, an independent OSHA review commission would hold a hearing on the matter, Fitzgerald said.

And the original from Aug 2007 when it happened

Kingston worker killed by falling tree - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Quote:

Kingston worker killed by falling tree
By Meghan Carey , Staff writer
Eagle-Tribune

KINGSTON - A Circuit Drive resident working for a local tree service was killed yesterday when he was struck by a falling pine tree.

Jon LaVigueur was cutting an 82-foot tree on 15th Street for Buzzell Tree Service of East Kingston when the pine fell on him about 12:40 p.m., police said.

Today would have been his 23rd birthday.

Paula Campbell, who owns the home at 1 15th St. where LaVigueur and four other employees were working, said the men had tied a rope to the top of the tree. After one worker used a chain saw to make a cut in the trunk, the other men began pulling the rope.

When the tree started to fall, they ran.

"He should have gone right or left," Campbell said, "but he tried to outrun the tree."

LaVigueur was slowed when his feet became entangled in weeds and bushes, causing the top of the tree to hit him in the back, she said.

Police Chief Donald Briggs said officers responded to multiple 911 calls. Medical personnel tried to help LaVigueur, but it was too late.

Neighbor Joe Mailhot of 2 15th St. witnessed the accident. He said the impact caused LaVigueur to be thrown.

"Another 2 feet and it would have missed him," Mailhot said.

Campbell said the workers were shaken. They kept screaming "Help," she said.

"There's been a lot of tears here today," Campbell said.

Briggs said LaVigueur, a graduate of Sanborn Regional High School, was a polite, respectful man with many friends. He lived with his father at 9 Circuit Drive. No one at the home or Buzzell Tree Service answered the doors last night.

"It was a tragic event that has affected many of the young people in Kingston who were friendly with the victim," Briggs said.

LaVigueur had worked for the company for just a short time, according to Briggs. Buzzell was to cut 16 or 17 trees for the Campbells.

This was the first tree cut down at the home yesterday, Briggs said. Numerous other pines were cut down last week and parts of tree trunks were still strewn around the yard.

Briggs said the incident is being investigated by state police, the Rockingham County attorney, the medical examiner and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Ekka · 4th February 2010, 08:33 PM

So, contrary to what some say and what appears to be blasé attitudes in the USA now this guy is facing some serious charges.

You can see he has already been fined by the US Dept of Labour but more goes on.

http://www.unionleader.com/article.a...f-233ff8d0815f

Quote:

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

BRENTWOOD – When the 80-foot pine tree that crushed Jon Paul LaVigueur was falling, Wayne Souther told jurors he thought he was going to be injured as well.

"I just thought to myself, this is going to hurt," Souther testified Tuesday about tripping over nearby wooden crates in his path. "But then I got up and saw Jon Paul on the ground."

Maurice Buzzell, who was LaVigueur's boss and owner of the tree removal business, went on trial Tuesday on charges of negligent homicide and reckless conduct in Rockingham County Superior Court.

LaVigueur was killed at a property on 15th Street in Kingston on Aug. 7, 2007, a day before his 23rd birthday. Prosecutors are alleging Buzzell ran an unsafe workplace, a finding that an investigator with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration made when he looked into the circumstances of LaVigueur's death.

Prosecutors say those violations led to LaVigueur's death.

LaVigueur and three of his co-workers were using a broken rope, already too short to pull down the pine tree, when the massive trunk fell, prosecutors said.

"The defendant said, 'Don't let go of the rope until the tree starts to fall,'" Assistant County Attorney Amy Connolly said during opening statements.

Souther testified that Buzzell took the shorter rope and tied it to another rope hanging from a nearby tree so the men could use it to pull down three, which was being taken down in sections.

"This rope had previously been broke," Souther, of East Hampstead, testified. "It was broken on a job site. We tied the rope to a truck and tied other end to a tree and it snapped."

The trial this week in Rockingham County Superior Court will include eyewitnesses who worked for Buzzell that day along with police and industry experts.

The defense is expected to call their own experts who say that prosecutors are citing safety standards that can't be applied to Buzzell's kind of tree-cutting business.

"The guidelines the government (is using) have been misapplied," defense lawyer Steven Colella said. "This was not a logging operation. This was arborist work and this was, in fact, a completely different animal." Colella suggested Buzzell actually made the work environment safer that day by instructing workers to lop off branches on a tree until it stood as a single pole before cutting it down.

"The process that took place that day was acceptable," he said. "It was a process that (LaVigueur) engaged in a 100 different prior occasions. This isn't something he was thrown into."

He said the only thing that didn't go as planned was the direction LaVigueuer ran to escape the falling tree's path.

Buzzell's trial is expected to last two to three days. If convicted on either charge, he faces 3 1/2 to 7 years in state prison.

AWF · 9th February 2010, 02:20 PM

Good and he should be put away for all of those years!

Ekka · 14th February 2010, 03:22 PM

Jury says guilty of negligent homicide!

Business owner guilty in 2007 tree fatality - Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010

Quote:

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010

BRENTWOOD – An East Kingston business owner was found guilty of negligent homicide for causing a fatal workplace accident that killed his employee, 22-year-old Jon Paul LaVigueur, in August 2007.

A jury returned a verdict against Maurice Buzzell, 53, late Tuesday afternoon in Rockingham County Superior Court.

They also found him guilty of a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge.

Buzzell, who owns and operates Buzzell Tree Service, now faces a potential three to seven years in state prison for setting up the workplace conditions that caused LaVigueur's death.

A sentencing date has not been set.

After Tuesday's verdict, Assistant County Attorney Howard Helrich said the jury had weighed a complex case of criminal liability to reach its verdict.

"From the perspective of this office, we felt very strongly that the death of Jon Paul LaVigueur was completely unnecessary and completely preventable, but for how this individual ran his business," Helrich said.

Prosecutors argued during the five-day trial that Buzzell required his employees to stand within the fall zone of trees they were pulling to the ground. Former employees testified they were taught not to move out of the way until the tree started to fall.

On Aug. 7, 2007, LaVigueur and three other workers pulled down an 80-foot limbed pine tree at a residential property on 15th Street in Kingston. LaVigueur was struck in the head and torso by the massive timber after he apparently ran in the same direction it fell.

Defense lawyers called LaVigueur's death an unfortunate accident, but one that their client could not be blamed for. LaVigueur, they argued, had helped cut about 100 trees working for Buzzell before the fatal accident.

LaVigueur's death triggered an investigation by Kingston police.

Some of the behind the scenes stuff

Witness: Victim facing away from tree as it fell on him - Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010

Quote:

Buzzell, owner of Buzzell Tree Service, is accused of instructing his employees to stand within the fall zone of trees, while being in violation of several worker safety standards by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Jurors weigh testimony in negligent homicide trial - Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010

Quote:

LaVigueur was pulling down a limbed 80 foot pine tree with a crew of three other men when the timber fell on him and crushed his skull and torso.

Defense lawyer Steve Colella argued that LaVigueur's own actions, running in the same direction as the falling tree, is what led to his death.

"Contrary to his training, contrary to everything he had done before, he ran in the direction of the tree," Colella said of LaVigueur.

But prosecutors said there was no training for workers with Buzzell Tree Service.

"He hired young men. He hired kids," Assistant County Attorney Howard Helrich said. "They had no experience when they were hired. He paid them under the table and he made no effort to properly train them."

The company was working at two jobs sites, one on 15th Street in Kingston and a neighbor's, on the day of the fatal accident on Aug. 7, 2007. Several witnesses including employees and friends of LaVigueur and Buzzell's former and current employees testified during the five-day trial in Rockingham County Superior Court.

Buzzell himself took the stand to testify in his own defense. He told jurors that former employees who claimed they always pulled down trees while standing in the fall zone of the tree were wrong.

"If all my employees who testified, testified to the fact that this method was used all the time, then they are all incorrect," Buzzell said. "We used bucket trucks, cranes, felling wedges, felling pulleys, felling with shivs, felling with trucks."

You know, in tight backyards you can seldom get the 1.5X to 2X tree length (or log/spar) length away to fell the tree, so think about pulley systems and rigging to have the pulling people out of the equation or isloated from fall zone.

I have shown systems before but even had to endure some idiots telling me that it was unsafe to do that, some idiots like to replace machines and rigging/pulley systems with people. That idiot did buy a Jims Trees franchise though!

9th February 2010, 02:20 PM	#3
AWF Sappling Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Australia Posts: 20	Re: Kingston OH Tree Death $12500 Fine \| Buzzell Tree Service Good and he should be put away for all of those years!

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode