11/02/2010 // WPB, FL, USA // Personal Injury Lawyers News // Nicole Howley

Chicago, IL—A Bureau of Forestry tree-trimmer is in critical condition after he was hit in the head while removing a tree on Monday, November 1, 2010. The work-related accident occurred between 7:39 a.m. and 8 a.m. in the 9700 block of South Morgan in the South Side, as reported by the Chicago Sun Times.

Officials would not speculate on the cause of the accident or identify the injured worker.

The injured worker was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.

According to Fred White, a truck driver for the Bureau of Forestry who was not at the accident site, thinks he knows what happened. Co-workers were told the tree the injured worker was cutting was a live maple, not a dead tree. “As they were removing the tree, the boom arm or bucket of the truck may have hit the arm of the tree and snapped the arm off, making the arm come down on [the worker’s] head. That my theory based on the fact that the tree was alive and there was no weight on the lead [major branch] of the tree.” White says the manpower cutbacks at the Bureau has increased pressure on the remaining workers now must work harder and faster, creating unsafe working conditions and accidents such as these.

“Because of the cutbacks, laborers are being asked to do more work and work faster,” said White. “I see them putting pressure on people [and saying], ‘Hurry up and do the trims. Remove the dead trees’ the public doesn’t realize that these employees are busting their butts. But, its make to look like they’re not doing their jobs.”

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the accident.

Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for Chicago work-related accident lawyers.

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