OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14476618
VOLTAGE BACKFEED,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,TRANSFORMER
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH ENERGIZED PARTS
Investigation abstract
A CREW OF EMPLOYEES WAS CLEANING AND SERVICING POWER DISTRIBUTION EQUIPMENT IN T OLTAGE BACKFEED ENERGIZED THE CIRCUIT TO THE TRANSFORMER. THE EMPLOYEE HAD BEEN STANDING WITH HIS CHEST AGAINST A GROUNDED PART OF THE ENCLOSURE AND HAD PROBABL Y CONTACTED ENERGIZED PARTS OF THE TRANSFORMER WHEN HE WAS ELECTROCUTED. HE SUBSTATION OF A HOSPITAL. THE EQUIPMENT WAS DEENERGIZED BUT WAS NOT ISOLATED OR TESTED FOR VOLTAGE. THE EQUIPMENT INVOLVED WAS A 1000 KILOVOLT-AMPERE TRANSFO RMER (NIAGARA, SERIAL NUMBER 49605). TWO EMPLOYEES FROM THE CREW WERE CLEANING A ND WAXING INSULATORS ON THE TRANSFORMER. DURING THE COURSE OF THIS WORK, ONE OF THEM STAGGERED BACKWARDS AND THEN STARTED TO FALL FORWARDS. AS HE DID SO, TWO EM PLOYEES GRABBED HIM AND LOWERED HIM TO THE FLOOR. THE INJURED EMPLOYEE DIED, AND IT WAS THOUGHT AT THE TIME THAT HE HAD SUFFERED A HEART ATTACK. HOWEVER, THE CO RONER RULED THAT HIS DEATH WAS CAUSED BY ELECTROCUTION. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT V
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 38 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.