OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14394522

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TREE LIMB,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,TREE TRIMMING

1989-06-19T00:00:00

Event: OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TREE LIMB,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,TREE TRIMMING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14394522
Report ID: 625700

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU TREE LIMB

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS WORKING FOR A TREE-TRIMMING CONTRACTOR, CLEARING OVERHEAD POWER LINES FOR AN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE. THE LINE-CLEARANCE TREE TRIMMER HAD CLIMBED A TREE THAT COULD NOT BE REACHED FROM HIS AERIAL LIFT. HE WAS USING A HAND-HELD S PEED SAW TO TRIM OVERHANGING LIMBS. ONE OF THE LIMBS FELL INTO A 14.4-KILOVOLT O VERHEAD POWER LINE. THE EMPLOYEE, WHO WAS STILL IN CONTACT WITH THE LIMB, WAS EL ECTROCUTED.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 21 M

Nature of injury
10

Part of body
4

Event type
6

Source
15

Occupation code
495

Human factor
1

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.