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 #14256432

BACKHOE BOOM,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,BOOM,ELECTROCUTED,E C,BACKHOE

Event
BACKHOE BOOM,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,BOOM,ELECTROCUTED,E C,BACKHOE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14256432
Report ID
453710

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU BACKHOE

Investigation abstract

AN CONSTRUCTION LABORER WAS HOLDING A PIECE OF TRACK FOR A BORING MACHINE. THE T RACK WAS TO BE LOWERED INTO A PIT BY A BACKHOE AND WAS BEING SUSPENDED FROM THE BOOM OF THE BACKHOE BY A CHAIN. THE OPERATOR OF THE BACKHOE WANTED THE CHAIN MOV ED AT THE HOOK ON THE BACKHOE BUCKET, SO A THIRD EMPLOYEE MOVED THE CHAIN. AS TH IS EMPLOYEE REMOVED HIS HAND, HE HEARD A NOISE. HE LOOKED AROUND TO SEE ARCING C OMING FROM THE FEET OF THE LABORER. THE BACKHOE OPERATOR HAD MOVED THE BOOM OF T HE BACKHOE INTO CONTACT WITH A 13.2-KILOVOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. THE LABORER WA S ELECTROCUTED.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 56 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    29
    Event type
    12
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    869
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    6
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.