OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14560379
TOWER PAINTING CO., INC.
PITTSFIELD, MA·
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE
Investigation abstract
A PAINTER EMPLOYED BY A PAINTING CONTRACTOR WAS ASSIGNED TO PAINT A STEEL STRUCT URE SUPPORTING A 23-KILOVOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE IN A SUBSTATION. ONE OF THE TWO SYSTEMS ON THE STRUCTURE WAS DEENERGIZED, WHILE THE OTHER SYSTEM REMAINED ENERG IZED. THE OPERATOR OF THE OVERHEAD LINE (AN ELECTRIC UTILITY) INCORRECTLY REPORT ED THE STATUS OF THE TWO SYSTEMS TO THE PAINTING CONTRACTOR. WHILE STANDING ON T HE STEEL STRUCTURE, THE EMPLOYEE TOUCHED A PHASE CONDUCTOR OF THE ENERGIZED POWE R LINE. HE RECEIVED AN ELECTRIC SHOCK AND FELL 60 FEET TO THE GROUND. HE WAS TAK EN BY EMERGENCY SERVICES TO A HOSPITAL, WHERE HE DIED OF ELECTROCUTION.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 579
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.