Wood chipper injuries not so rare

NORFOLK -- State authorities will investigate the death of a 14-year-old Poquoson boy caught by the blades of a wood chipper. 

Wood chippers and tree trimming crews are largely unregulated in Virginia, despite a record of injuries and deaths.

It's unusual for wood chippers to kill tree trimmers but not so unusual for wood chippers to cause injuries.

Wood chippers cause about 204 injuries each year and about three deaths each year, a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says

“If you get stuck and you can't reverse it then all hope is gone, you're going through,” said Ron Cale, a tree trimmer for Mason Tree Service in Norfolk.

Wood chippers have a safety bar above the mouth of the opening.  In an emergency, pushing the bar will reverse the wheels and prevent any anything from going into the machine.

Investigators from the Va. Department of Labor and Industry will not say if the wood chipper Frank Gornik was using had a functioning safety bar or whether it would have made a difference in his death.

The details of the investigation will remain under seal until a final report is released in six months, according to an agency spokeswoman. 

Last month, Fairfax County asked the state to provide new regulation for arborists and tree trimmers out of safety concerns, but the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation wrote a letter in response saying the General Assembly has voted against additional regulation.

 

 

“The Board concluded in 1990 and 2001 that insufficient evidence of harm to the public’s health, safety, or welfare justified regulation of the profession,” the board’s director wrote in a letter to Fairfax County supervisors in October.