Town Mourning Longtime Logger Killed In Accident Limb Swung Into Cab Of Jensen’s Bulldozer

Residents of this small timber community are mourning the death of a longtime local logger in a freak accident Tuesday near Harrison.

Craig J. Jensen, 43, owned a small gypo logging business specializing in low-impact, environmentally sensitive timber harvests.

He was killed when a limb apparently became caught in his bulldozer’s tracks and swung into the cab, crushing his neck, according to Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department reports.

The U.S. Department of Labor and Occupational Safety Health Administration lists timber cutting as the second most dangerous occupation, averaging 133 fatalities per 100,000 workers. Construction was listed as the most dangerous occupation.

Last year, 2,781 workers reported logging-related injuries to the Idaho Industrial Commission. Five of those accidents proved fatal.

Jensen was skidding trees off a mountainside with a Caterpillar bulldozer near Carlin Bay when the accident happened Tuesday afternoon.

As his two employees sawed along the roadway, Jensen decided to make another skid run up the embankment to hook five fallen trees.

He returned about 15 minutes later and stopped the bulldozer near the road, where the men noticed blood coming from his mouth. They loaded Jensen into his pickup truck, drove to the nearest house and called 911.

Emergency personnel who arrived on scene by helicopter said Jensen’s airway appeared to have been crushed by a blunt object and then swollen shut. Attempts to perform an emergency tracheotomy were unsuccessful because of swelling and damage to his airway, police reports said.

Jensen, who had two grown sons, worked for nearly 20 years at St. Maries Logging before starting his own business four years ago.

He was known for his quality work and jolly personality, said his best friend, Jim Robinson of St. Maries.

“He really loved his work and was really an outsdoorsman,” Robinson said. “Everybody that ever worked with him just loved him because he was such a character and was funloving. No matter how bad of a day it was, he could make it good.”

Robinson said members of the tight-knit logging community who knew Jensen were devastated by the news of his death. He had worked in the woods for more than two decades without injury.

“It shocked us all,” Robinson said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

, DataTimes