Tree trimming company fined $72,500 over wood chipper death

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

The business that employed a tree trimmer who was pulled into a wood chipper in Menlo Park is facing $72,500 in fines from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Jesus “Salvadore” Contreras Benitez, 47, of Redwood City, died on Oct. 11 when he was loading the wood chipper at 900 block of Peggy Lane in the Suburban Park neighborhood that afternoon.

As a groundsman, Benitez was the person in charge of loading the chipper with the branches from the coast live oaks that the company, F.A. Bartlett Tree Expert Company, was hired to trim, according to an investigation report from Cal/OSHA.

But around 12:50 p.m., something went wrong. Benitez’s coworkers told the Cal/OSHA investigator that they were in the trees while Benitez was loading the chipper. Both coworkers looked away and heard the chipper going, and when they looked down to where Benitez was standing, they only saw blood.

It is believed that Benitez’s glove got caught on a branch he was feeding into the machine, according to the Cal/OSHA report.

Benitez’s coworkers told the Cal/OSHA inspector that typically two people load wood into the chipper, but this time Benitez had decided to do it himself, according to the report.

An inquiry to an F.A. Bartlett representative was not returned yesterday. But the company is appealing Cal/OSHA’s decision, saying in its appeal form that “independent employee action caused the violation” and that no safety regulations were violated.

Benitez had been trained in how to use the wood chipper and as a groundsman.

Breanna Garcia, who had been dating one of Benitez’s sons, told the Post after the accident that he was all about safety.

Benitez was born in Mexico and immigrated as a teenager, not having much more than a 6th-grade education, Garcia told the Post in October. He was deported twice, but was steadfast in setting down roots in California. He also sent home money to his parents in Mexico.