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The year was not that old when the first tree worker fatality of 2003 occurred.
The arborist fell 40 feet from a tree and died on impact. The incident was the
first of more than 100 in which tree workers were killed in 2003. The oldest
worker killed last year was 67 years old. The youngest was just 12.
These people died while performing a variety of tasks, from raking leaves, to
setting out cones, to climbing high out on limbs, to operating aerial lifts and
chippers. The only thing they had in common was that they left families and
friends grieving at the unexpected loss of someone dear to them. Tree care may
be healthy for the tree, but can be hazardous to the tree worker. No question
about it: Ours is a high-risk profession.
This past fall, a widely circulated news article highlighted the top ten most
dangerous jobs. The unenviable number one spot was held by loggers, with a
fatality rate of 117.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. Next was commercial fishery
at 71.1, pilots and navigators at 69.8, and structural metal workers at 58.2.
The lowest on the list, the number ten slot, were truck drivers at 25 deaths
per 100,000 workers. The all-industry average, if every worker in the United
States were lumped into a single category, is 4 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
The occupations in the top ten are clearly more hazardous than the average job.
Where were arborists on this ranking?
The federal government does not identify arborists as an entirely separate
category for reporting occupational fatalities. Arborists are included for
statistical purposes within the industry group Landscape and Horticultural
Services, which includes lawn care workers, landscape gardeners, and landscape
architects and designers, among others. More than one million people are
employed in landscape and horticultural services occupations, and the
collective fatality rate for this group was 16.1 per 100,000 workers, about
four times higher than the all-industry average. If arborists are separated
from this group, their fatality rate for 2003 was 39.5 fatalities per 100,000.
That ranking places arborists as number five on the list of the most dangerous
jobs in the United States. Some years, we have been much higher in the
rankings. Relatively speaking, 2003 was a low year in regard to the number of
arborist fatalities.
The level of danger in our profession does not surprise any tree company
manager who is looking at workers compensation insurance rates. Tree care is a
high-risk profession. It will always be a high-risk profession; any time you
combine large, heavy objects; great heights; power tools; and electrical
exposure, you have the perfect recipe for accidents. But the fatality rate does
not have to be this high, and everyone has the responsibility to work every day
at lowering this rate.
The first step in the process of lowering fatality rates is to determine which
types of fatal accidents occur in the tree care profession and then develop
programs to help prevent those accidents.
We have been conducting an investigation of the fatalities in the industry by
examining data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, state fatality assessment projects, police and
rescue reports, and surveys sent to companies throughout the United States. It
is impossible to draw a complete picture, of course, but an examination of
approximately 1,000 fatalities that occurred during the past 15 years provides
a good indication of where the risks are greatest in our profession.
The U.S. government tracks fatalities for all occupations in six general
categories: transportation, assaults, contact with an object, falls, exposure
to a harmful environment, and fire. The category "contact with an object" is
where most of the arboricultural fatalities occur, although fatalities caused
by falls are close and even surpass fatalities caused by contact in some years.
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International Society of Arboriculture
