With the coming of spring and warmer weather comes an increase in land clearing. In the span of just two weeks, we experienced two fatal accidents during land clearing work.
In the first, while clearing land, the bulldozer operator failed to wear his seat belt. He fell off the seat onto the tracks. The bulldozer continued to move forward, with the operator falling off the front and being crushed by the tracks.
In the second incident, a backhoe was being used to remove a tree. The operator had dug out around the tree and, apparently, was moving in to position to push the tree over with the bucket. As he was moving into position, the tree fell over onto the cab of the backhoe and crushed him.
Please reemphasize with your employees the importance of using the right equipment for the job and using the safety equipment that is made available.