OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #565689
E GI III,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT,TEST EQUIPMENT,GROUND FAULT,ELEC EQUIPMENT--MISC
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - GROUND FAULT IN ELECTRIC FURNACE
Investigation abstract
A PRESSURE VESSEL WAS BEING TREATED IN AN ELECTRIC HEAT-TREATING FURNACE. THE VE FROM THE RECORDER, AND A CHECK WAS MADE OF THE INSTRUMENT. WHEN THE EMPLOYEE PIC KED UP THE EXPOSED THERMOCOUPLE WIRES SO THAT HE COULD RECONNECT THEM, HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH A GROUNDED SURFACE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED. SSEL WAS PLACED IN THE FURNACE, WITH A SHORT PIECE OF PIPING WITHIN 0.5 INCHES O F THE RESISTIVE HEATING ELEMENT. AS THE TEMPERATURE ROSE IN THE FURNACE, THE 480 -VOLT ELEMENT EXPANDED AND CONTACTED THE PRESSURE VESSEL. SINCE IT WAS ISOLATED FROM GROUND, THE VESSEL BECAME ENERGIZED. A THERMOCOUPLE, WHICH WAS ATTACHED TO THE PRESSURE VESSEL, WAS CONNECTED TO A TEMPERATURE RECORDING INSTRUMENT. THE TH ERMOCOUPLE, HAVING ALSO BECOME ENERGIZED THROUGH CONTACT WITH THE PRESSURE VESSE L, CAUSED THE RECORDING INSTRUMENT TO MALFUNCTION. AN EMPLOYEE WAS CALLED IN TO TROUBLESHOOT THE RECORDER MALFUNCTION. THE THERMOCOUPLE WIRES WERE DISCONNECTED
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 13
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- 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.