OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14520639

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,INSULATOR,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UTILITY POLE

1986-11-17T00:00:00

Event: OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,INSULATOR,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,UTILITY POLE
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14520639
Report ID: 524530

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE THRU POLE

Investigation abstract

THREE LINEMEN WERE STRINGING ENERGIZED CONDUCTORS USING LIVE-LINE PROCEDURES. TH EY WERE CLIPPING THE TOP PHASE OF A THREE-PHASE 69-KILOVOLT OVERHEAD SYSTEM TO A RIDGE PIN INSULATOR. THE TIE WIRE, WHICH WAS BENT, CONTACTED THE PIN, ENERGIZIN G THE POLE. (THE TIE WIRE WAS BENT WHEN INSULATING SHIELDS WERE REMOVED FROM THE ENERGIZED LINE, BEFORE IT WAS SET ON THE INSULATOR.) THE LINEMAN WAS IN CONTACT WITH A GROUNDED NEUTRAL CONDUCTOR THAT HAD NOT BEEN REMOVED FROM THE WORK AREA. THE CURRENT PASSED THROUGH THE POLE, INTO HIS BODY VIA HIS CLIMBING SHOE SPIKE, AND EXITED THROUGH THE GROUNDED NEUTRAL, CAUSING THE EMPLOYEE TO RECEIVE A FATA L SHOCK.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 36 M

Nature of injury
10

Part of body
4

Event type
13

Source
15

Occupation code
577

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
8

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.