Tree service sued after worker killed by wood chipper

The wife of a recently deceased man has filed suit against the tree service which she claims employed her husband when he was sucked into a wood chipper and killed.

Amy Risinger alleges her husband, Richard Risinger, was working for defendants Andrew’s Tree Service and Andrew Jacobs on Nov. 18, 2011, and was feeding limbs into the wood chipper when the incident occurred.

Richard Risinger’s “jacket became caught in the machine while he was loading tree limbs during a routine job,” according to an article written in the “Daily Mail.” “When police officers arrived at the scene at Belleville, Illinois, at 9:50 a.m. on Friday, they observed Mr. Risinger entangled in the wood chipper. He was ‘obviously deceased.’”

Because of her husband’s death, Amy Risinger alleges she has been deprived of his love, companionship, society, consortium and support, the suit filed Dec. 20 in St. Clair County Circuit Court states.

She blames the defendants for contributing to her husband’s death, saying they negligently failed to provide adequate training to workers using the wood chipper, failed to warn workers of the dangers of improperly loading branches into the wood chipper and demonstrated the improper way to load branches into the wood chipper.

In her four-count complaint, Amy Risinger is seeking a judgment of more than $300,000, plus costs.

She will be represented by Samantha S. Unsell of Keefe and Keefe in Belleville.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 12-L-668.