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 #14354112

BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRICAL,E PTD,CIRCUIT BREAKER,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT,SWITCHGEAR

Event
BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRICAL,E PTD,CIRCUIT BREAKER,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT,SWITCHGEAR
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14354112
Report ID
418400

Event description

ELECTRICAL BURNS - ELECTRICAL FAULT IN SWITCHGEAR

Investigation abstract

AN ELECTRICAL FAULT HAD OCCURRED IN A SWITCHGEAR CUBICLE. AN EMPLOYEE PUSHED A M ANUAL TRIP BUTTON, HAVING ASSUMED THE BREAKER WAS OPEN. AFTER MAKING THE NECESSA RY STEPS TO ENERGIZE THE EMERGENCY SWITCHGEAR, AN ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION OCCURRED BEHIND THE EMPLOYEE WHERE THE ORIGINAL FAULT HAD OCCURED. THE EMPLOYEE WAS SEVER LY BURNED. A SECOND EMPLOYEE RECEIVED MINOR BURNS. THE ACCIDENT WAS PROBABLY CAU SED BY THE DISCONNECT SWITCH ON THE LOAD SIDE OF THE REGULATOR BEING IN THE CLOS ED POSITION, ALLOWING THE BREAKER ON THE OPERATING SIDE TO BE ENERGIZED BY THE E MERGENCY SIDE. IT WAS ASSUMED THAT THE OPERATING SIDE HAD ALREADY FAILED.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 60 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    18
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 59 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    1
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    18
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    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.