Core Tree Care, Inc.: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Dec 4, 2020: Skin is removed from hand of employee while cutting tree lim

At 11:30 a.m. on December 4, 2020, an employee was working for a landscaping service. His employer had been contracted to remove trees alongside a highway in Calistoga, California. He was the immediate supervisor onsite the day of the incident. He was in a bucket truck, positioning himself to be near a limb that he was going to remove. The employer had rented the bucket truck access the tree to be removed, due to terrain issues. A shallow ditch at the site would have made it dangerous for employees to conduct tree removal operations from the ground. The limb the employee was working on was roughly 30DBH (30 in. diameter at breast height, or 0.75 m diameter) and 48 in. (1.22 m) long. The employee made a direct cut into the limb at a 45-degree angle, leaving only a small portion of the limb uncut. He then began to reposition the bucket while also calling to the ground crew for a rope to sling the branch. About the time the employee entered the danger zone for this operation, the limb broke free. The limb fell, striking the employee in his right hand, which he had placed on the lip of the bucket to stabilize himself as he maneuvered. He had been using his left hand to control the bucket truck. The employee suffered a serious injury to the back of his right hand. His skin was stripped down to tendons and bone from the top of his right hand. He was hospitalized. He remained in the hospital until December 7, 2020. The Division learned about the incident at 10:05 p.m. on December 4, 2020. A CHSO was assigned to the investigation and made it onsite on December 16, 2020. The site was no longer an active site after December 4, 2020. T8 CCR Section 3427(c)(3), Felling, Safe Work Procedures, mandated that "A notch and back cut shall be used to establish a hinge when felling trees over 5 inches [125 mm] in diameter."