TO: Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

FROM: California Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (CA/FACE) 

Program

SUBJECT: A Supervisor Dies When He is Decapitated by a Rope That Was 

Pulled Into a Wood Chipper 

SUMMARY

California FACE Report #12CA001

A supervisor for a land clearing company died when he was decapitated by a rope 

that was pulled into a wood chipper. A work crew was clearing overgrown trees and 

brush from the perimeter of a home. A bundle of cut brush was cinched together 

with a rope and pulled up to a wood chipper by a co-worker. The rope used to cinch 

the brush into a bundle was not removed prior to the bundle being fed into the wood 

chipper. One end of the rope caught in the drum of the wood chipper and became 

taut, tangled around the victim, and pulled him onto the wood chipper feed table. 

The victim was then decapitated by the rope. Factors that may contribute to worker 

death when operating a wood chipper include feeding brush or branches which

contain foreign objects into the chipper, and work procedures that required the use 

of a rope that present an entanglement hazard at the point of operation of the 

chipper. The CA/FACE investigator determined that, in order to prevent future 

incidents, land clearing companies that use wood chippers should:

 Ensure that cut tree branches are placed in piles and checked for unwanted 

objects before being fed into wood chippers.

 Assign a co-worker as a safety watch whenever cut tree branches are being 

fed into a wood chipper.

INTRODUCTION

On Thursday, January 12, 2012, at approximately 8:30 a.m., a 50-year-old Hispanic 

supervisor for a land clearing company died when he was decapitated by a rope that 

was pulled into a wood chipper. The rope was tied around a bundle of brush that was 

being fed into the wood chipper. The CA/FACE investigator received notification of this 

incident on January 13, 2012, from the Richmond office of the California Department of 

Public Health, Occupational Health Branch. On February 2, 2012, the CA/FACE 

investigation team interviewed the owner of the company at their maintenance and 

storage yard. The wood chipper was photographed and the operation and safety 

features of the machine were explained in detail. The incident scene was visited later 

that day, where the homeowner was interviewed and pictures of the incident scene

were taken. Police and coroner reports were also obtained.
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EMPLOYER

The employer of the victim was a land clearing company that provided a variety of 

services including mechanical brush mowing, brush removal, chipping, and general land 

clearing.

WRITTEN SAFETY PROGRAMS AND TRAINING

The land clearing company had a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP)

that was updated in 2011. The IIPP included management and employee 

responsibilities, safety meeting schedules, training, safety incentives, disciplinary 

programs, and overall safety procedures for activities related to land clearing services.

The employees of the land clearing company were trained in all aspects of land 

clearing and attended monthly safety meetings, but not all of these activities were 

documented. The owner of the company stated the victim had received training in 

2004 in safe wood chipper operation by attending classes offered by the wood chipper 

manufacturer in maintenance, operation, and safety.

THE VICTIM

The victim was a 50-year-old Hispanic male who was working as a foreman/supervisor. 

The victim had worked for the land clearing company for 14 years. He was responsible

for maintaining all of the company equipment and supervising the work crew.

INCIDENT SCENE

The incident scene was the backyard of a private residence. The new homeowner 

hired the land clearing company to trim and remove trees and overgrown brush around

the perimeter of the property. The area the crew was clearing was a steep backyard 

hillside. This job was to last two days.

MACHINERY

The wood chipper involved in the incident was a Bandit Model 1890 that was purchased 

new in 2004 (see exhibits 1-4). This was a self-propelled track-mounted chipper with 

reversing auto feed rollers, hydraulic swivel discharge, and a remote control for portable 

operation. The wood chipper also included a hydraulically controlled rope winch 

mounted above the feed table (see exhibit 4).

WEATHER

The weather on the morning of incident was clear with a calm wind and visibility of 

approximately 10 miles. The ambient temperature at the time of the incident was 54 

degrees Fahrenheit.
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WORK PROCESS

The work process involved cutting trees and brush, cinching cut limbs and brush into 

bundles with a rope, and dragging them up the steep incline by a second rope from the 

wood chipper-mounted winch. The wood chipper was controlled and operated by a 

remote control that the victim wore around his waist. After the bundles of cut limbs and 

brush were dragged to the wood chipper, the rope was supposed to be removed from 

the bundle before the branches were fed into the chipper.

INVESTIGATION

On the second day of the job, the work crew returned to the remote hillside residence to 

finish the land clearing job. The wood chipper was maneuvered behind the residence 

and situated on a level recess in the hill side. The victim directed three co-workers to 

cut down the overgrown brush and trees along the fence line approximately 15 yards 

downhill from the chipper location. One of the co-workers cinched together a bundle of 

brush with a loose rope, hooked the bundle to the winch rope, and followed the bundle 

up the incline to the base of the chipper. When the bundle reached the base of the 

wood chipper, the co-worker started to remove the rope that held the bundle of brush 

together. However, before he removed the rope completely from the bundle, he was

directed by the victim to take the end of the winch rope and pull it down the incline to 

drag up another bundle. The co-worker got approximately 20 feet down the incline 

when he heard the victim scream. He climbed back up the incline and saw the victim’s

body lying on the chipper’s feed table. He immediately reversed the direction of the 

feed rollers and shut the machine off.

The homeowner was in the house and heard a loud clanking noise from the wood 

chipper. The homeowner witnessed the victim lying on the wood chipper table, and 

then called the owner of the land clearing company and 911. When the emergency 

response crews and police arrived they found the victim had been decapitated. One 

end of the rope that was used to cinch together the bundle of brush was caught in the 

drum of the wood chipper, became taut, and decapitated the victim. It is not known how 

the rope became looped around the victim’s body and neck, or if he was standing to the 

side or front of the feed table. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

Occupational injuries and fatalities are often the result of one or more contributing 

factors or key events in a larger sequence of events that ultimately result in an injury or 

fatality. The CA/FACE team identified the following items as contributing factors in this 

incident that ultimately led to the fatality:

 Feeding branches or brush which contained a foreign object into the wood 

chipper.

 Ropes that presented an entanglement hazard at the point of operation of the

chipper.
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CAUSE OF DEATH

The cause of death according to the death certificate was blunt force neck injury.

RECOMMENDATIONS / DISCUSSION

Land clearing companies that use wood chippers should:

Recommendation #1: Ensure that cut tree branches are placed in piles and 

checked for unwanted objects before being fed into wood chippers.

Discussion: In this incident, a co-worker cinched a bundle of brush with a rope and 

used the winch to drag it up the hillside to the chipper. While feeding the brush into the 

chipper, one end of the rope entered the chipper and wrapped around the chipper’s 

drum, pulling the rope taunt, entangling the victim, and decapitating him. Although 

ropes serve a useful purpose in the tree trimming and brush clearing business, they 

should always be removed from the point of operation of chippers before chipping 

begins and never used to feed material into the wood chippers. To prevent such 

incidents, all cut branches and brush should be placed in piles and inspected prior to 

being fed into wood chippers to ensure that they are free of any unwanted object(s) that 

might cause personal injury. Had the material been placed in piles and inspected prior 

to being fed into the chipper, the rope may have been removed from the bundle thereby 

preventing this incident.

Recommendation #2: Assign a co-worker as a safety watch whenever cut tree 

branches are being fed into a wood chipper.

Discussion: In this incident, the victim was working alone even though there were three

other employees working at the bottom of the hillside clearing the perimeter of the 

property. Many hazardous work assignments such as high-voltage electrical work or 

confined space work mandate the use of a safety watch to be present when certain 

activities occur to help prevent injuries. When a wood chipper is in operation, at least 

one worker in addition to the operator should be placed near the safety control bar/feed 

roller bar to observe the actions of the operator as well as the material being fed into the 

wood chipper. In this incident, a designated safety watch stationed near the chipper 

may have noticed the rope wrapped around the cut brush and prevented the victim from 

feeding the brush into the wood chipper.

References:

California Code of Regulations, Subchapter 7. General Industry Safety Orders Group 

3. General Plant Equipment and Special Operations Article 12. Tree Work,

Maintenance or Removal §3424. Mobile Equipment. (c) Brush Chippers.
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http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/ny/05ny034.html

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface/ca/00ca010.html

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hid8.html

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The CA/FACE team would like to thank and acknowledge the owner and employees of 

the land clearing company involved in this incident, the Nevada City County Coroner 

and Sheriff’s Department, and the homeowner of the property where the incident 

occurred for their assistance and cooperation with this investigation.

EXHIBITS:

Exhibit 1. The right side of the wood chipper involved in this incident.
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Exhibit 2. The left side of the wood chipper involved in the incident.

Exhibit 3. The wood chipper feed table and feed rollers.
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Exhibit 4. The rope winch on the wood chipper used to pull tied bundles of

brush and cut branches up to the feed table.

Exhibit 5. The wood chipper’s drum that the rope was wrapped around.
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Exhibit 6. Portions of the frayed rope after it went through the wood chipper.

Exhibit 7. The location in the back of the house where the 

wood chipper was parked.
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Exhibit 8. The back of the residence where the wood chipper was located.

Exhibit 9. The steep hillside where the employees were working.
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Exhibit 10. The incident scene showing the topography of the land.

_____________________________ _______________________________

Hank Cierpich Robert Harrison, MD, MPH

FACE Investigator FACE Project Officer

____________________________ October 22, 2012

Laura Styles, MPH

Research Scientist
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FATALITY ASSESSMENT AND CONTROL EVALUATION PROGRAM

The California Department of Public Health, in cooperation with the Public Health 

Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 

conducts investigations of work-related fatalities. The goal of the CA/FACE program 

is to prevent fatal work injuries. CA/FACE aims to achieve this goal by studying the 

work environment, the worker, the task the worker was performing, the tools the 

worker was using, the energy exchange resulting in fatal injury, and the role of 

management in controlling how these factors interact. NIOSH-funded, state-based 

FACE programs include: California, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New 

Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

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Additional information regarding the CA/FACE program is available from: 

California FACE Program

California Department of Public Health 

Occupational Health Branch 

850 Marina Bay Parkway, Building P, Third Floor 

Richmond, CA 94804 

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/ohb-face