105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14235469

ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,E GI III,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,NECK,UNTRAINED,TREE TRIMMING

Event
ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,E GI III,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,NECK,UNTRAINED,TREE TRIMMING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14235469
Report ID
552700

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS ASSIGNED THE TASK OF REMOVING AN ELM TREE FROM THE BACKYARD OF A RESIDENCE. THE EMPLOYEE HAD CLIMBED THE TREE USING TREE CLIMBERS AND WAS CUTTIN G BRANCHES WHILE HE WAS TIED IN BY A SAFETY BELT. AS HE WAS CUTTING OR LOWERING BRANCHES, HIS NECK CONTACTED AN 8000-VOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED. THE CURRENT ENTRY POINTS WERE AT HIS NECK AND AT HIS RIGHT FOOT, W HERE THE SPUR ON HIS RIGHT CLIMBER WAS EMBEDDED IN THE TREE.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 25 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    12
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    889
    Human factor
    1
    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.