OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14516827

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,E C,EXTENSION HANDLE,PAINTER,SCAFFOLD

1987-07-24T00:00:00

Event: OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,E C,EXTENSION HANDLE,PAINTER,SCAFFOLD
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14516827
Report ID: 420600

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU HANDLE

Investigation abstract

A PAINTING CONTRACTOR WAS PAINTING A COMMERCIAL BUILDING. A NEW EMPLOYEE WAS HIR LT (PHASE TO GROUND) OVERHEAD POWER LINE LOCATED ABOUT 8 FEET, 11 INCHES ABOVE T HE SCAFFOLD'S WORKING SURFACE. (ADDITIONALLY, THE METAL SCAFFOLD WAS CONTACTING A NEUTRAL CONDUCTOR ABOUT 1 FOOT, 1 INCH BELOW THE WORKING SURFACE.) THE NEW EMP LOYEE, WHO WAS SITTING ON THE METAL SCAFFOLD PLANKING, WAS ELECTROCUTED. ED TO HELP IN THE PAINTING. HOWEVER, THIS EMPLOYEE HAD NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE AS A PAINTER. (HIS ONLY EXPERIENCE WAS AS A CONCRETE FINISHER.) THE NEW EMPLOYEE W AS ASSIGNED TO USE A HAND ROLLER TO COVER SPOTS MISSED IN THE MORTAR AREAS BETWE EN THE BRICKS. HE WAS GIVEN AN ALUMINUM PAINT ROLLER EXTENSION HANDLE (ABOUT 11 FEET LONG) TO PAINT THESE AREAS. HE WAS WORKING FROM A ROLLING SCAFFOLD (WITHOUT STANDARD GUARDRAILS) FROM A HEIGHT OF ABOUT 20 FEET, 6 INCHES ABOVE THE SIDEWAL K. ABOUT 2 HOURS AFTER HE HAD STARTED TO WORK ON HIS FIRST DAY ON THE JOB, THE E XTENSION HANDLE THE NEW EMPLOYEE WAS USING CONTACTED TWO CONDUCTORS OF A 7620-VO

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 25 M

Nature of injury
10

Part of body
4

Event type
6

Source
15

Occupation code
869

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
13

Hazardous substance
8870

Task assigned
2

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.