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 #14523369

ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SWITCH,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT

Event
ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SWITCH,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14523369
Report ID
522300

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - FAULT IN DISTRIBUTION SWITCH

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS ASSIGNED TO OPEN A 69-KILOVOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE BETWEEN TWO S UBSTATIONS. AS HE OPENED THE MANUAL SWITCH HANDLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POLE (GRO UND LEVEL), A FAULT OCCURRED IN THE SWITCH AT THE TOP OF THE POLE. CURRENT PASSE D THROUGH A #6A COPPER-CLAD METAL GROUND WIRE THAT WAS BONDED TO THE SWITCH HAND LE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POLE. THE FAULT PASSED ENOUGH CURRENT TO ENERGIZE THE SW ITCH HANDLE AND ELECTROCUTE THE EMPLOYEE.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 50 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    14
    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.