Jon Crawford: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Dec 5, 2015 (fatal): One employee is killed by wood chipper; another suffers hear

On December 5, 2015, Employee #1 and Employee #2 were working as part of a four-man crew trimming trees at a residential home. Employee #1 was putting limbs into a Vermeer wood chipper, model # BC1500 while a coworker was collecting limbs from the work site. Employee #2, business owner, was trimming limbs and lowered the bucket on the truck to the ground. Employee #2 went to the customer's door when he heard the chipper make a funny noise and saw smoke coming from the belt on the chipper. Employee #2 immediately went to chipper yelling for the coworker to disengage the chipper. The coworker told Employee #2 he could not find Employee #1 and thought he might be in the chipper. Employee #2 reversed the chipper and the remaining part of Employee #1's body came out of the chipper. Employee #2 yelled for someone to call 911 and then suffered a heart attack. Employee #1 was pronounced dead at the scene and Employee #2 was transported to King Mountain Hospital.