# Man Killed by Flying Piece of Wood



## mmax (Dec 9, 2008)

Nov 10, 2009 9:10 am US/Central Man Killed By Flying Piece Of Wood COOK, Minn. (AP)

Frank Steven Kami of Cook died when the wood was thrown from a machine Monday afternoon. (File)

A man working at a family lumber mill in northeastern Minnesota was killed by a flying piece of wood Monday afternoon.

The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office said 45-year-old Frank Steven Kami, of Cook, died when the wood was thrown from a machine. He was working alone at the mill and died at the scene.

Sheriff's deputies are investigating.


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## hjt (Oct 22, 2009)

I'm sure OSHA will be there soon. Look for more regulation in the near future. Remember, the biggest lye purpiitraited on mankind is "...hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help."


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## mark88 (Jun 8, 2009)

i wonder if he was a woodworker too?? hmmm


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## SnowyRiver (Nov 14, 2008)

That sure doesnt sound good.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Even when we have done a operation a thousand times it only takes one time to be injured or killed. I feel for this poor soul dieing all by himself.


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## KentS (May 27, 2009)

We're all aware of the dangers from using power tools, but sometimes we forget what could happen just being there. Several years ago, I was measureing some cabinets for doors. While minding my own business, the trim carpenter was cutting crown molding across the room. A small piece flew out of his miter saw and hit me right next to my eye. Another inch and I probably would have lost my eye. I couldn't believe how much a cut on the face bleeds. I think he was more shook up than me because he could see how bad I was bleeding.
Obviously, you can never be too careful.

All that said, your story makes my incident look rather trivial when you compare. Thanks for sharing


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## Woodfix (May 14, 2009)

hello, I am from the Government. My job is Health and Safety. I am there to help. But if you wont accept my help (to prevent injuries and deaths in your workplace) I have a big stick too. I wonder what the workers in the vast majority of countries that have no Health and Safety authorities would say about it.
BTW I have 7 investigation files on my desk at the moment, 4 are deaths at work.


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## BlankMan (Mar 21, 2009)

This is a sad unfortunate story. My machines scare the bejebers out of me. When ever I momentarily had a lapse of attention or took a shortcut I paid for it. Once on the drill press with a 3" hole saw and twice a year of two ago with kickback on the table saw, after 15 years. You pay for complacency. Now if I'm a bit tired I stop for the day. If I'm tired before I start I don't start, I used to push myself, I wanted to get-r-done. There's always tomorrow and by doing this now there's a better chance they'll be a tomorrow to do it.

Woodfix, keep it up, people do have a negative perspective in this area, they focus on the cost of the safety measures and not on the cost of injury or death.

Just like the building inspectors. People think they're pulling one over on someone when they do things without permits. That someone is themselves. I always pull a permit and I welcome the inspectors in my house. When I removed all the galvanized water pipe and replaced it with copper in my house I would call them early in the morning before they left for their inspections to ask questions if I was unsure of something. They are there to help, some people treat them as the enemy. When I got the inspection the only thing I got dinged on was the water hammer protectors had to be of the piston type (which I thought was stupid because the piston can fail but I did it) and the plastic connecting hoses under the sinks. Those hoses were required to be braided stainless steel. The inspector explained the plastic ones will eventually bulge and bust. Hearing that I had no problem replacing them all including the washing machine hoses even though that wasn't a requirement.

When I took out my tank hot water heater and replaced it with a tankless this past July, which took a lot of plumbing and larger gas piping, not a single ding when it was inspected.

Inspectors protect people from themselves, not everyone needs to be, but a lot do. And usually the ones that scream the loudest that they don't, are the ones that do. And the ones that take shortcuts because they "know" that's good enough.

Keep it up Woodfix you are appreciated.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

I had a sawmill friend show me the beam that was holding up the roof of his sawing shed. a 6X6 that was almost split by a flying piece of wood. The take-off man let a piece of wood hit the back of the blade as he was removing the wood and it flew up and hit the beam and shattered it.

I had another sawmill owner tell me last week about a mill in PA that wanted to get rid of a lot of wood scraps and they had a valley behind the mill. So they constructed a saw blade at the end of a conveyor belt and they would send wood up the conveyor and it would throw the wood about 400' into the valley. I could imagine that it would be very painful if hit by one of those pieces.


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## Spiffpeters (Nov 25, 2009)

A very unfortunate story. I feel for the mans family.

However, just as sharing this story is a way to keep safety in the front of our minds, there is potential value in deconstructing the circumstances that led to this accident. Perhaps it was operator error. Perhaps it was poorly maintained equipment. Perhaps it was a combination of factors that could have or should have been corrected.

Everyone benefits, either directly or indirectly, from understanding how accidents are caused and thus prevented.


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

I feel sorry for the man's family with the holidays here. But that is another prime example of working with big pieces of equipment and no one around in the case of an accident., especially in a sawmill.


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