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 #14456164

ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK

Event
ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14456164
Report ID
854910

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU NEUTRAL

Investigation abstract

A FOUR-WIRE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM HAD BEEN STRUNG TO A TRANSFORMER POLE. TWO LINEM EN WERE POSITIONED ON THE POLE TO CONNECT THE NEUTRAL OF A SERVICE DROP TO THE S YSTEM NEUTRAL. ONE OF THE EMPLOYEES DESCENDED THE POLE AFTER HAVING TOLD THE OTH ER TO STAY IN THE BELTED POSITION AND TO STAPLE THE SERVICE NEUTRAL TO THE POLE. THE EMPLOYEE ON THE GROUND WAS WALKING FROM THE POLE WHEN HE HEARD A CRACKLING NOISE. THE EMPLOYEE ON THE POLE WAS HANGING BY HIS SAFETY BELT. THE NEUTRAL WIRE , HELD IN HIS LEATHER-GLOVED HAND, HAD MADE CONTACT WITH THE 14.4-KILOVOLT OVERH EAD POWER LINE SOME 4 FEET ABOVE THE EMPLOYEE. HE WAS ELECTROCUTED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 27 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    12
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    8
    Environmental factor
    18
    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.