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 #14497788

BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRIC ARC,ELECTRICAL,PPE,E GI VII,ELECTRICAL WORK,TEST EQUIPMENT,ELECTRICAL FAULT

Event
BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRIC ARC,ELECTRICAL,PPE,E GI VII,ELECTRICAL WORK,TEST EQUIPMENT,ELECTRICAL FAULT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14497788
Report ID
626600

Event description

ELECTRICAL FLASH - FAULT AT SWITCHGEAR

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS PERFORMING MONTHLY PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE ON SWITCHGEAR EQUIPMEN T. HE WAS TAKING BUS VOLTAGE READINGS FROM A PARTIALLY ENERGIZED SWITCHGEAR (FOR THE MOTOR STARTER OF A 3-PHASE, 480-VOLT COMPRESSOR). WHILE HE WAS TAKING A REA DING, AN ELECTRICAL FLASH OCCURRED, AND THE EMPLOYEE WAS BURNED. THE EMPLOYEE DI ED A WEEK LATER. THE CAUSE OF THE ELECTRICAL FLASH WAS UNKNOWN, BUT IT MAY HAVE BEEN DUE TO A SHORT CIRCUIT CAUSED BY THE TEST EQUIPMENT. THE EMPLOYEE WAS NOT W EARING THE PROPER PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR FLASH.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 50 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    14
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    549
    Human factor
    20
    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.