105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #671537

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,LIVE-LINE TOOL,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK

Event
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,LIVE-LINE TOOL,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
671537
Report ID
551800

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

A POWER LINE WORKER WAS USING AN 8-FOOT HOT STICK TO CONNECT HOT TAPS FROM THE L INE SWITCHES TO A 7200-VOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ON A UTILITY P OLE WEARING A HARD HAT AND SAFETY GLASSES. HE WAS NOT WEARING ANY ELECTRICAL PRO TECTIVE EQUIPMENT. THE EMPLOYEE HAD THREE CONNECTIONS TO MAKE AND HAD MADE ONE W ITH NO PROBLEMS. HOWEVER, HE SUFFERED A FATAL ELECTRIC SHOCK ON ATTEMPTING TO MA KE THE SECOND CONNECTION, EITHER BECAUSE HE CONTACTED A PHASE CONDUCTOR OR BECAU SE THE HOT STICK FAILED TO INSULATE HIM.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 56 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    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.