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 #14332498

BURN,CLOTHING,VOLTAGE BACKFEED,ELECTRICAL,E PTD,SUBSTATION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK

Event
BURN,CLOTHING,VOLTAGE BACKFEED,ELECTRICAL,E PTD,SUBSTATION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14332498
Report ID
418100

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK AND BURNS - VOLTAGE BACKFEED IN SUBSTATION

Investigation abstract

THREE EMPLOYEES WERE CLEANING THE MAIN LUGS IN SUBSTATION 11 IN PREPARATION FOR KFEED OF 13 KILOVOLTS ENERGIZED THE LUGS ON WHICH THE EMPLOYEES WERE WORKING, SH OCKING AND BURNING ALL THREE EMPLOYEES. TWO OF THEM WERE HOSPITALIZED WITH SECON D DEGREE BURNS TO THEIR LEFT HANDS AND ARMS. THE OTHER EMPLOYEE RECEIVED FIRST D EGREE BURNS TO HIS LEFT HAND. THE TYING IN OF A FEEDER TO SUBSTATION 12. THE MAIN POWER SWITCH TO THESE TWO SU BSTATIONS AND TO SUBSTATIONS 13 AND 14 HAD BEEN OPENED AND LOCKED OUT. HOWEVER, IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN POWER TO A PLANT AIR COMPRESSOR, A CIRCUIT BREAKER IN SUBST ATION 14 WAS TO BE PROVIDED WITH TEMPORARY POWER FROM ANOTHER SUBSTATION. THIS C IRCUIT BREAKER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN TO PREVENT BACKFEED TO THE FOUR DEENERGIZ ED SUBSTATIONS. THE SUPERVISOR FOR THESE EMPLOYEES CHECKED THE CIRCUIT BREAKER A ND FOUND IT TO BE OPEN. UNFORTUNATELY, HE HAD MISREAD THE INDICATOR DUE TO INADE QUATE ILLUMINATION. WHEN THE TEMPORARY POWER SUPPLY WAS CONNECTED, A VOLTAGE BAC

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 38 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    14
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 40 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    14
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    14
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    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.