OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14342513
ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,LOCKOUT,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UNDRGRD POWER LINE
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH UNDERGROUND LINE
Investigation abstract
ON THE AFTERNOON OF GOOD FRIDAY, AN EMPLOYEE WORKING ALONE WAS BUTT-SPLICING SIX BREAKS IN A 480-VOLT UNDERGROUND POWER LINE THAT HAD BEEN EXCAVATED. THE CIRCUI T BREAKER BOX THAT SUPPLIED POWER TO THIS LINE WAS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING LOCKED O UT AND WAS LOCATED ON A PUBLIC STREET ABOUT 200 FEET AWAY FROM THE EMPLOYEE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS SPICING THE SIXTH BREAK, WHICH HAPPENED TO BE THE FURTHERMOST FROM THE BREAKER BOX. THE CIRCUIT BREAKER HAD BEEN TURNED ON, AND THE LINE BECAME RE ENERGIZED. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED WHEN HE PERFORMED THE SPLICE. NO ONE DE TERMINED WHO REENERGIZED THE LINE.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 36 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 12
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.