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 #14456750

COLLAPSE,GUY,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL,TRANSMISSION TOWER

Event
COLLAPSE,GUY,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL,TRANSMISSION TOWER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14456750
Report ID
854910

Event description

FALL - COLLAPSE OF TRANSMISSION TOWER

Investigation abstract

AN INSPECTOR FOR A POWER LINE CONSTRUCTION FIRM WAS IN CHARGE OF QUALITY CONTROL . WHILE HE WAS PLUMBING A TRANSMISSION TOWER, A CRACKING NOISE COULD BE HEARD CO MING FROM THE UPPER PART OF THE TOWER. AS PART OF HIS JOB AS AN INSPECTOR, HE MA DE THE 60-FOOT CLIMB UP THE TOWER TO INVESTIGATE. THE ATTACHMENT FOR THE SOUTHEA ST GUY WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN A 1-INCH UNIT, BUT IT HAD BEEN INSTALLED WITH 1 .125-INCH NUTS. CONSEQUENTLY, AS THE TENSION INCREASED, THE UNIT EVENTUALLY SHEA RED. THIS OCCURRED WHILE THE EMPLOYEE WAS ON THE TOWER. WHEN THE UNIT SHEARED, T HE TOWER ROTATED AND FELL INTO A PARALLEL OVERHEAD POWER LINE. THE EMPLOYEE FELL TO A DIRT ROADWAY BELOW AND WAS KILLED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 26 M

    Nature of injury
    21
    Part of body
    13
    Event type
    5
    Source
    5
    Occupation code
    35
    Human factor
    17
    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.