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Friday, February 27, 2009

The Andrew Palmer fatality

Andrew Palmer

After Andrew Palmer was killed in a tree felling accident while he was working on a fire in northern California on July 25, 2008, law enforcement officers and the U.S. Attorney's office got heavily involved in the case, which slowed down the serious accident investigation.

But on January 23, 2009 the U. S. Attorney's office in Sacramento made a decision, saying "We decline to pursue criminal charges". This is good news for several reasons, but especially since now the accident investigation can resume and if there are lessons to be learned, those will be discovered.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Federal law enforcement officers with the USDA Forest Service LE&I, investigators with the USDA Office of Inspector General, as well as investigators with the United States Attorney Generals Office got involved somehow and at someones request very early on.

Their involvement severely undermined any lessons learned that could have come from this accident and the prevention of future accidents. The lessons learned are lost.

Concurrent investigations of investigatory agencies, as well as Lessons Learned Analysis (FLA, APA, SAI)should not be undertaken at the same time. Add into the equation any agency administrative inquiry at the same time and you have a recipe for disaster.

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