Citation

Ostberg O. Accid. Anal. Prev. 1980; 12(3): 189-200.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The rate and seriousness of accidents in tree felling operations have remained at a high level despite prevention measures; training, motivating films, safety regulations, anti-kickback power saws, etc. In this study 731 subjects assessed the risks of 10 forestry situations. The subjects represented six different groups of forestry personnel and the assessments were made individually by means of paired comparisons. One of the stimulus situations was not concerned with felling and served as a calibration. Evaluation and statistical tests were made after arcsine transformation of the judgement proportions. The results supported the hypothesis that the fellers had an accurate and consistent knowledge about the risks in typical felling situations. It is concluded that the accident rate can not be reduced substantially by further training and motivational programs aimed at changing the fellers' working behavior; instead the fellers need better equipment, production methods and work organization which support safe behavior. The risk assessments of supervisors were the lowest of all groups, showing the need for closer collaboration between the production and the safety systems.