OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221404932
HOOPER CORPORATION
ASHLAND, WI·
Event description
Employee is struck on head by falling utility pole and dies
Investigation abstract
At 3:30 p.m. on October 21, 2021, an employee worked with three coworkers to zone without notifying coworker #1 who continued to cut. The pole then fell and struck the employee on the head and right leg. The employee received blunt force trauma to the head and a leg fracture and taken to the hospital, where the employee died. fell a thirty-five-foot wooden utility line pole. The employee and coworker #1 unloaded a trailer while coworkers #2 and #3 began to dig a forty-five-inch diameter hole approximately one and a half feet deep around the pole in preparation for the cut. The employee then used an angle grinder to cut two steel guy wires that supported the pole as coworker #1 began a conventional wedge cut at the base of the pole facing the identified fall zone. Coworker #2 then held onto the two guy wires while coworker #1 continued cutting the pole. At some point, the employee grabbed one of the guy wires and entered the fall
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 54 M
- Event type
- 1
- Occupation code
- 7015
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.