Identifying causes, dynamics and consequences of work accidents in forest operations in an alpine context

Abstract

In a sustainable perspective, where wood harvesting and use perfectly respond to environmental needs, social sustainability and related health and safety of forest workers cannot be disregarded. The aim of this study was the analysis of the accidents records in public companies in the Province of Trento, in Northern Italy, regarding forest operations in the period 1995-2013. Several information were available thanks to the up-to-date accident books compiled by each company. With an average Frequency index in the examined period of 88 injuries per million hours worked, forest operations were confirmed as one of the most dangerous works along all productive sectors. Monday had a significant higher frequency of accidents comparing to the other weekdays. The age of the workers seemed influencing the recovery period after injuries, which exponentially increase at rising age. Felling and processing definitely resulted as the most dangerous activity in forest operations covering the 31% of total accidents happened. 'He puts a foot wrong...', 'He was hit by...' were the most common phrases used in describing the studied accidents; these were the action cause of the accident and contribute explaining why body extremities, first of all the hands, were the body parts most injured. Finally, a new concept in accident analysis was proposed introducing the analysis of 'recidivism', which analysed the eventual recurrence of accidents to the same worker in a given period. Results have underlined that some workers had more than one injury during the analysed period, up to seven accidents for one of them.