OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14391577
INADEQUATE MAINT,EQUIPMENT FAILURE,FALL,UTILITY POLE
Event description
FALL - IMPROPERLY BURIED UTILITY POLE
Investigation abstract
A four-person power line crew was transferring an overhead power line from one s area that was subject to tidal flooding from a nearby waterway. After the accide nt, it was discovered that the pole was buried only 127 to 203 millimeters (5 to 8 inches) rather than the normal 1.8 meters (6 feet). The employer had not insp ected the pole on the morning of the accident. ide of a road to the other. One of the power line workers on the crew had climbe d a 12.2-meter-tall (40-foot-tall) utility pole to transfer two conductors to a coworker in a nearby aerial lift. The employee on the pole transferred the neutr al conductor and then climbed nearer to the top of the pole to transfer the phas e conductor. He handed the conductor to his coworker and, as he moved on the pol e, it fell. The employee on the pole was strapped to it, and he fell with the po le to the ground. He died of internal injuries sustained in the fall. The utilit y pole was provided with a guy on one side. However, the pole was located in an
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 5
- Event type
- 5
- Source
- 8
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 3
- 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.