Loveland – A man trimming branches from a large tree was killed Wednesday afternoon when he became caught in a tree-shredding machine, authorities said.
The accident happened about 1:30 p.m. at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Fountain Drive on Loveland’s west side.
Tree shredders, also known as wood chippers, are used to chop up large tree limbs into mulch.
Officials from the Loveland Police Department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which are investigating the incident, released few details about how the accident happened.
“This is a very tragic situation,” said Herb Gibson, OSHA’s area director in Denver.
Loveland police Sgt. Rae Bontz said the Larimer County coroner would make an official ruling on how the death occurred. Bontz described the death as an industrial accident.
“It appears he was pulled into the chipper,” he said. “We are still investigating.”
The name of the man who died was being withheld until authorities could notify his family.
The man and a partner, both employees of a commercial tree-trimming company, were removing dead branches from a tree about 40 feet tall on the side of a home in a residential neighborhood. Bontz said they were using chain saws to cut the branches and then feeding them into the shredder. A flatbed truck the men were using had a large pile of wood chips in the back.
A person reached at Brian’s Tree Trimming and Removal Service in Loveland, where the two men worked, declined to comment.
Bontz said the man’s partner saw the accident happen, then ran to the front door of the home where they were working and yelled for help. While the home’s occupant called 911, the partner ran back to the victim, Bontz said.
The man was dead when paramedics arrived, Bontz said.
Shortly after the accident, authorities called for a police chaplain to comfort the dead man’s partner. Employees of other tree-trimming companies – friends of the victim and his partner – also arrived to provide support.
They declined to comment.
Bontz said the partner was doing “as well as one can expect from a trauma like that.”
“He’s very coherent, and he’s very upset over what happened, obviously,” he said.
Police blocked one lane of Wilson Avenue while conducting their investigation and hung a large blue tarp to shield the scene from passing motorists. Neighbors stood on the sidewalk or peeked over their fences wondering what had happened.
At least seven people have died nationwide from tree- shredder accidents in the past three years. A Centers for Disease Control report found that between 1992 and 2002, 31 occupational-injury deaths were attributable to mobile shredders like the kind the two men were using Wednesday.
OSHA’s Gibson said his agency would investigate whether the men were following proper safety procedures and whether there were any violations of federal worker-safety protections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
Wood-chipper deaths
July 2005: Harold Dean Gregory,
44, of Tampa, Fla., was killed
when he was pulled into a wood
chipper while feeding limbs.
May 2005: Julio Hernandez, 42, of
Highland Mills, N.Y., was killed
when he was sucked into a wood
chipper.
November 2004: Andrew Lee
Byrd, 46, of Port Gibson, Miss., a
sawmill worker, was killed when
trapped in a wood chipper at
work.
November 2004: Miguel Marquez,
19, a tree trimmer from San Jose,
Calif., died after his leg was
sucked into a wood chipper.
April 2004: Gordon McKay, 51, a
tree trimmer from Tampa, Fla.,
died while trying to dislodge debris
from a jammed wood chipper
and slipped. The machine pulled
half his body through the blades.
June 2003: Rigoberto Martinez,
20, a landscaper from Long
Branch, N.J., died when he kicked
at a stuck branch and both his
legs were pulled into a wood chipper.
March 2003: Roziland Jennifer
Mowell, 24, a tree-service worker
from Lakeland, Fla., was killed
when her whole body was caught
in a wood chipper and pulled
through the 2- by 2-foot opening.
Compiled by Barbara Hudson of
The Denver Post’s Research
Library.
