OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14468466

LINE MAINTENANCE, INC.

EAST BARNARD, VT· 1988-03-12T00:00:00

Event: OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRICAL, TREE LIMB, ELECTROCUTED, E PTD, TREE TRIMMING
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #105655385
Employer profile: LINE MAINTENANCE, INC.
Summary number: 14468466
Report ID: 155010

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

A TREE TRIMMER WAS TRIMMING TREES AROUND A SHORT SPUR 7200-VOLT OVERHEAD POWER L INE. AFTER TRIMMING A SOFTWOOD TREE FROM THE BOTTOM UP, HE RAPPELLED DOWN THE TR EE. HE STOPPED HIS DESCENT TO REMOVE A BRANCH FROM THE NEUTRAL LINE. AS HE GRASP ED THE DETACHED BRANCH WITH HIS LEFT HAND, HE APPARENTLY PULLED HIS BODY (WHILE HE WAS SUSPENDED BY HIS BODY HARNESS AND RAPPELLING LINE) INTO THE POWER LINE. H IS RIGHT ARM, BETWEEN THE ELBOW AND THE SHOULDER, CONTACTED THE COVERED PHASE CO NDUCTOR. THE TREE TRIMMER WAS ELECTROCUTED.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 29 M

Nature of injury
10

Part of body
12

Event type
13

Source
15

Occupation code
495

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
16

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.