104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14382915

ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TELECOM WORK,E TC,ELECTROCUTED,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UTILITY POLE

Event
ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TELECOM WORK,E TC,ELECTROCUTED,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UTILITY POLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14382915
Report ID
521400

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINES

Investigation abstract

A RAILROAD SIGNAL MAINTAINER WAS REPLACING A DEFECTIVE UTILITY POLE CARRYING 17 BACK. HE WAS WORKING ALONE AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. CONDUCTORS, WHICH VARIED FROM UNUSED COMMUNICATION LINES TO ENERGIZED UNINSULATE D AND INSULATED CONDUCTORS WITH VOLTAGES OF 110, 440, AND 575 VOLTS, AC, AND 40 TO 110 VOLTS, DC. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ABOVE GROUND ON THE NEW POLE AT THE CROSSARM DOING LIVE-LINE BARE-HAND WORK. HE HAD RECEIVED NO TRAINING FOR SUCH WORK AND HA D BEEN PROVIDED WITH NO LIVE-LINE TOOLS, ELECTRICAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT, OR BAR RIERS OF ANY KIND. NONE OF THE 17 CONDUCTORS WAS FASTENED IN PLACE TO PREVENT MO VEMENT IN WINDS OF 23 MPH. THE EMPLOYEE'S ELECTROCUTION RESULTED FROM DIRECT ELE CTRICAL CONTACT BETWEEN THE FINGERS AND PALM AREA OF HIS LEFT HAND AND HIS LOWER

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    533
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    6
    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.