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 #14567796

BURN,ELECTRIC ARC,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TREE TRIMMING

Event
BURN,ELECTRIC ARC,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,TREE TRIMMING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14567796
Report ID
454510

Event description

BURNS - ARC FROM OVERHEAD POWER LINE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS PERFORMING LINE-CLEARANCE TREE TRIMMING FROM AN INSULATED BUCKET . THE LIMBS OF THE PINE TREE HE WAS TRIMMING WERE PUSHING AGAINST THE NEUTRAL OF THE OVERHEAD POWER LINES. THE EMPLOYEE WAS USING A 7-FOOT HYDRAULIC SAW WHICH H AD A 4-FOOT, 7-INCH FIBERGLASS ROD BETWEEN THE METAL HANDLE AND THE SAW. WHEN TH E LIMBS WERE CUT, THE NEUTRAL LINE MOVED CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE PRIMARY LINE TO CAU SE AN ARC. THE EMPLOYEE RECEIVED FLASH BURNS ON HIS ARMS AND CHEST.

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    495
    Human factor
    10
    Environmental factor
    18
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    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.