So, here we go again.
We hear about a serious logging injury or, worse yet, a fatality. Maybe we knew the victim or the operator.
Or we see a newspaper article detailing an accident involving a log truck and a school bus.
Cold chills run up and down our spines; we hesitate to read beyond the headline. We feel terrible for those involved. Isn’t anybody trying to prevent these tragedies? Somebody should do something, and then do even more!
Exactly.
And twenty years ago, in 1991, a group of forest industry professionals and associates did do something. With a handful of good ideas and a large helping of support from the American Pulpwood Association (now the Forest Resources Association), the National Timber Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation (THATS) came into being. Organized as a 501(c)3 non-profit, THATS began its work of accumulating funds through gifts, contributions, and fundraising events and focusing those funds on projects to improve logging and trucking safety.
Over the past twenty years, THATS has provided nearly $700,000 in project support, funding over 134 worthy safety-related projects in the logging and wood products industry, and its work continues. THATS initiatives have addressed logging equipment and wood chipper operation, timber salvage risks, and the trucking of forest products. In partnership with state forestry associations, professional logger associations, forestry schools, equipment manufacturers, and others, THATS has worked to make a positive impact on safety in the forest industry.
What difference has it made? The logging fatality rate has declined from an average of 168 deaths per 100,000 logging workers in 1980-89 to 61.8 in 2009. In cooperation with FRA, THATS has published Safety Brochures, Loss Control Overviews, Safety Alerts, Video Safety Training Programs, and Technical Releases for the benefit of loggers and truckers and, ultimately, the public.
With this column, we launch a new feature in the Forest Operations Review. In future issues, watch for paragraphs on the Foundation’s current work, notes on noteworthy THATS-sponsored safety training resources, training workshop tips, and discussions of the various safety data and metrics.
In the meantime, be sure to view the newly updated Timber Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation web site at www.loggingsafety.com. At our recently relaunched site you will find:
• The Logging Safety Resource Guide
• Access to the Southwide Safety Committee’s Timber Harvesting Safety Manual
• The Forest Worker’s First Year Safety Program
• The THATS Grant Application
• A link to OSHA information
• . . . and much more!
In addition to the many easily downloadable publications available free of charge, the site provides ordering information on DVDs and other valuable safety training materials that THATS-funded projects have made possible.
Tom Bosley, Chairman
National Timber Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation