Evaluation of risks in the forest terrestrial transportation

The present work was accomplished in one of the principal activities of the province of Misiones, the forestry transportation. The forest industry is the main economic activity of the province, whether sawmills, the manufacture of furniture and/or the elaboration of cellulose paste. All these industrial processes require trees as raw material, the trees, generally of implanted pine wood, which are grown in farms of different position whose distance to the centers of processing can be of a few kilometers even over one hundred. In view of this it is precise to perform this raw material transportation of harvest grounds and to the processing centers, stock or consumption, using national and provincial routes that can be asphalted, rough or land. The objective of the work was to identify, evaluate and propose measures of control for the correlated dangers the activity of forest terrestrial transportation at Misiones province. The analyzed activities include a circuit that goes from the preparation of the truck to departure to harvest centers, to download the same and their conditioning for its new output. To carry out the analysis, first was held a detailed observationof the workstation to allow identify hazards. From the first identification, evaluated them following the method of the Magnitude of the Risk, that consider the probability of the danger based on statistics of happened accidents and the factor of gravity that considerssecurity criteria, health and happened damages. From the evaluation arise the dangers with different levels of risk, amongthose who stand out for been Not Acceptable, the conduction of the transportation without obeying speed limits, using the cell phone, in state of fatigue and in adverse weather conditions. As improvement proposed to reduce the level of risk its recommended to implement management tools for both the driver and the unit, install devices of satellite tracking for velocity control and the continuous training to the staff mainly in Road Safety. The proposed measures require as from their implementation a continuous tracking, which demands the commitment of both staff in charge of the management and carriers themselves, in order to turn this into an activity with minimal risk. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.