OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14223135
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,E GI IA,TREE TRIMMING,AERIAL LIFT
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU AERIAL LIFT
Investigation abstract
AN EMPLOYEE IN AN AERIAL LIFT WAS TRIMMING A BRANCH OF A LIVE WALNUT TREE ALONGS IDE A ROAD. THE BOTTOM OF THE BUCKET FROM WHICH HE WAS WORKING CONTAINED WET DEB RIS TO A DEPTH OF ABOUT 1.5 INCHES. AS HE STARTED TO CUT THE BRANCH, THE BUCKET CAME INTO CONTACT WITH A 7200-VOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. IT IS BELIVED THAT THE E MPLOYEE POSITIONED THE BUCKET SO THAT THE OVERHEAD LINE WAS CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE BUCKET'S DRAINAGE HOLE TO ALLOW CURRENT TO FLOW THROUGH THE WET DEBRIS. THE CURR ENT PASSED FROM THE POWER LINE THROUGH THE DEBRIS, THE EMPLOYEE, AND THE CHAINSA W HE WAS HOLDING TO THE LIVE TREE, WHICH CONDUCTED THE CURRENT TO GROUND. THE EM PLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 53 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 11
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 494
- Human factor
- 12
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.