OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14562466
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK,UTILITY POLE
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE
Investigation abstract
AN APPRENTICE LINEMAN OF 6 MONTHS WAS ASSIGNED BY HIS FOREMAN TO CLIMB A UTILITY IN THE CLOSED POSITION, THEN ON TO A LINESIDE TAP CONNECTED TO AN ENERGIZED 762 0-VOLT LINE. THE ROUTE THE LINE FOLLOWED WAS OBVIOUS FROM GROUND LEVEL TO THE PE RSONNEL. POLE TO DISCONNECT A SECONDARY DEENERGIZED 240-VOLT LINE. HIS FACE BRUSHED AGAI NST THE CLAMP OF A LINE HANGING LOOSE FROM ABOVE WHEN HE WAS TAPING A WIRE. HIS HAND HAD ALSO MADE CONTACT. THERE WAS A FLASH, AND THE EMPLOYEE SLID DOWN TO THE CABLE TELEVISION LINE, BURNED AND UNCONSCIOUS. HE WAS HOSPITALIZED, AND HIS EXT ENSIVELY BURNED LEFT ARM WAS AMPUTATED TO THE ELBOW. HE REQIRED FACIAL PLASTIC S URGERY. INVESTIGATION DETERMINED THAT BOTH THE FOREMAN AND FIRST CLASS LINEMAN H AD FAILED TO NOTE THAT THERE WAS A HANGING LINE. THIS LINE TRAVELED TO AN INSULA TOR ON THE UPPER POLE ARM AND CONTINUED TO A LOADSIDE TAP, THEN TO A FUSE HOLDER
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 37 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.