OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14446256
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,PPE,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UTILITY POLE
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD POWER LINE
Investigation abstract
A LINEMAN CLIMBED A UTILITY POLE TO PROVIDE A TEMPORARY REPAIR OF LINE DAMAGE TH DIO. AT THIS TIME, THE LINEMAN HAD MOVED HIS SAFETY BELT TIEOFF FROM UNDER THE N EUTRAL (BOTTOM LINE) TO A POSITION ABOVE THE NEUTRAL LINE. THE LINEMAN TOUCHED T HE SECOND LINE FROM THE BOTTOM WITH HIS ELBOW AND WAS ELECTROCUTED. AT HAD BEEN CAUSING A POWER OUTAGE. IN ORDER TO DO THIS, A JUMPER WIRE ON THE LE FT SIDE OF THE POLE WAS TO BE CONNECTED TO THE TOP WIRE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE POLE. THIS WOULD PROVIDE A SINGLE-PHASE 7200-VOLT CIRCUIT FEEDING IN BOTH DIREC TIONS AND WOULD TEMPORARILY SUPPLY ELECTRIC POWER TO HOMES IN THE AREA. A SERVIC E MAN HAD GONE 2 MILES AWAY TO PULL THE DISCONNECT SWITCH SO THAT THE LINEMAN CO ULD CONNECT THE JUMPER WIRE TO THE PHASE WITH AN 8-FOOT HOT STICK WHILE THE LINE WAS DEENERGIZED. WITH THE DISCONNECT SWITCH OPEN, ALL THREE LINES ON THE RIGHT SIDE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEENERGIZED. THE LINE FOREMAN WENT TO THE TRUCK TO GET A RA
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 6
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.