OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14204176
CONSUMERS POWER INC
CORVALLIS, OR·
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK- DIRECT CONTACT WITH UNDERGROUND LINE
Investigation abstract
A CREW OF LINEMEN WAS ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE AN ELECTRIC FAULT IN ONE OF SEVERAL U WOULD BE INTO THE TRANSFORMER SPLITTER. IT WAS ASSUMED THAT CERTAIN PROCEDURES HAD BEEN FOLLOWED AT THE INITIAL WIRING OF THE VAULT, SO THE LINEMEN PROCEEDED T O HOOK UP THE THUMPER TO A CABLE IN ORDER TO CHECK IT. THE THUMPER DID NOT FUNCT ION PROPERLY, SO ONE WORKER WENT TO CHECK THE JUMPER CABLE. HE BELIEVED THE CLAM P TO THE FUSE LINK MIGHT BE LOOSE, SO HE GRABBED THE CABLE IN ORDER TO TIGHTEN I T. AS A RESULT, HE RECEIVED A 7200-VOLT ELECTRIC SHOCK, WHICH KNOCKED HIM TO THE GROUND. HE RETAINED CONSCIOUSNESS, BUT RECEIVED ELECTRICAL BURNS ON HIS HANDS A ND SUFFERED A MILD CASE OF SHOCK. HE HAD NOT BEEN WEARING RUBBER GLOVES AS REQUI RED WITH USE OF THE THUMPER, NOR HAD ANYONE CHECKED THE TEMPORARY CABLE JUMBER T O SEE IF IT WAS ENERGIZED AFTER THE THUMPER WAS SHUT OFF. ADDITIONALLY, THE COLO NDERGROUND CABLES WITH A THUMPER (A FAULT LOCATOR). THEY WERE WORKING AT GROUND R CODING OF THE VAULT TIES WAS NOT CONSISTENT WITH THAT FOR THE TIES OF THE TRAN SFORMER, WHICH MEANT THEY WERE WORKING WITH A DIFFERENT TIE THAN THEY BELIEVED. LEVEL WHERE THE SOURCE TRANSFORMER FED A SPLITTER HOUSED IN A SMALL CONCRETE VAU LT LOCATED A FEW FEET IN FRONT OF THE TRANSFORMER. AS THEIR WORK PROGRESSED, IT BECAME EVIDENT THAT THE THUMPER WAS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY. THIS INDICATED THAT T HERE WERE SEVERAL POSSIBLE TROUBLE SPOTS THAT WOULD HAVE TO BE TRACKED DOWN SYST EMATICALLY. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE LEAD BETWEEN THE TRANSFORMER AND THE VAUL T HAD A FAULT. THE CREW THEN SET UP A JUMPER TO BYPASS THE LEAD. THERE WERE SEVE RAL TIES OFF THE SPLITTER, SO THE CREW CALLED TO DETERMINE WHAT THE COLOR CODING
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 12
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 213
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 8
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.