Tree Shatters, Kills Princeton Logger Fatal Accident Is Second In A Month In Latah County

A 52-year-old Princeton man died Thursday after being struck by a tree he was felling.

Lloyd D. French was cutting a fairly large Douglas fir on his O’Reilly Road farm, according to the Latah County Sheriff’s Office. As the Douglas fir fell, it struck another tree and shattered.

A small piece of the tree knocked French’s hard hat and face shield off, the sheriff’s department said. He started to back up, tripped and fell. The rest of the tree dropped on top of French, killing him.

It is the second fatal logging accident in Latah County in a month. Ronald K. Halseth, 29, of Deary, was killed just eight miles from where French was killed.

Halseth was felling a tree on Potlatch land when a tree about 60 feet up the embankment pitched over and struck him, the Latah County Sheriff’s Office said.

Apparently the root system on the tree that fell was mostly dead. There is speculation that vibration from logging trucks caused the tree to finally fall when Halseth was nearby.

French was born in Moscow and graduated from Mead High School north of Spokane in 1963.

He has been a Princeton-area farmer and logger since the early 1970s and also has worked as a millright for Ownbey Lumber Co.

French is survived by his wife, Marjorie; two sons, Forrest and Tom, all of Princeton; a daughter, Valorie Stricklin of Deary; parents, Ben and Bonnie French of Deer Park; two brothers, Russell French of Deer Park and Larry French of Miles City, Mont.

Viewing will be at Short’s Funeral Chapel in Moscow on Monday and Tuesday. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Princeton Church of the Nazarene.

, DataTimes