FACTS

• Woodchippers are extremely powerful and efficient machines that allow landscapers and cleanup crews to remove and dispose of trees, bushes, and other yard waste in a quick and cost-effective manner.
• Woodchippers are capable of causing devastating injuries to workers when they are not used properly, or they fail to operate safely due to a defect or design flaw.
• The combination of speed and torque allows commercial woodchippers to pull in branches at 20 inches per second.
• Fatalities can occur in the operation of wood chipping operations and also cause injuries from flying wood chips and the noise generated by the machined.

STATS

Analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data regarding deaths and injuries caused by wood chippers by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows:

• 31 occupational injury deaths were attributable to mobile wood chippers (about three per year).
• 68% of the deaths were the result of being caught or compressed by the chipper.
• 29% were the result of being struck by the machine or a machine part.
• A third of these deaths each year happen during July and August.
• 2,042 non-fatal injuries resulted from working with chippers (about 200 per year).
• Over a five-year period, 155 of these cases ended in amputations, and.
• About a third of those injured had been on the job for less than a year when injured (16% less than three months, 18% 3-11 months).