Eleven Forestry Deaths in 2013, But Upward Trend Noted
Graph illustrates forestry harvesting fatality claims over the past 14 years. Graph courtesy BC Forest Safety Council
Prince George, B.C.- There has been no change in the number of fatalities in the forestry sector in 2013, compared to 2012. Both years saw eleven workers die on the job. That is the latest word from the BC Forest Safety Council, which has issued an advisory.
The advisory notes the deaths of four truck drivers, and three equipment operators last year, is an increase for those particular professions within the sector when compared to 2012.
The BC Forest Safety Council says although the total number of deaths in forestry in 2013 is unchanged from 2012, the industry is noting an upward trend and is taking steps to address it.
According to the BCFSC, advisory groups and committees, are focusing on log truck operations, manual tree falling, tree planting and other silviculture operations. There is also a committee examining coastal logging practices.
Comments
Any deaths are unacceptable, but I would like to see this graph aligned with the actual activity in the forest. You can clearly see where the recession was and when the forest sector is busy. Once again I don’t think any deaths are acceptable.
Exactly cougar78. It cannot be used as a serious indicator of any measures taken to increase safety in the sector.
We require a relationship to person hours worked as well as normalized WorksSafeBC assessments as well to be shown.
The changes to the forest act and to worksafe Bc started in 2001, interesting to see the numbers pre-2001.11 deaths 11 to many by any account.
To see those numbers, have a look at the graph above ….
1999 = 18 deaths
2000 = 21 deaths
2001 = 27 deaths ….
after 2001 the dropped 25 … 14. ..12
other than a huge anomaly in 2005, and again in 2008, the numbers kept going down to 5 in 2010 … and then doubled by 2012 …
So what are you trying to say steph99?
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