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 #762609

E GI IV,ELECTRICAL,REVERSE POLARITY,ELECTRICIAN,ELECTROCUTED,ELECTRICAL WORK,LOCKOUT,GROUND FAULT,SYSTEM GROUNDING

Event
E GI IV,ELECTRICAL,REVERSE POLARITY,ELECTRICIAN,ELECTROCUTED,ELECTRICAL WORK,LOCKOUT,GROUND FAULT,SYSTEM GROUNDING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
762609
Report ID
454712

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - GROUND FAULT IN ELECTRICAL SERVICE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS MAKING FINAL ADJUSTMENTS TO A RESIDENTIAL WIRING SYSTEM. TWO SEC . TIONS OF 12/2 AWG NON-METALLIC-SHEATHED CABLE (ROMEX) WERE USED TO SUPPLY POWER FROM THE TEMPORARY ELECTRICAL SERVICE TO THE METER BASE FOR THE RESIDENCE. THIS ALLOWED THE WIRING INSIDE THE HOUSE TO BE INSPECTED AND EQUIPMENT TO BE CHECKED TO ENSURE THAT IT WORKED PROPERLY. THE EMPLOYEE WAS UNDER THE HOUSE CONNECTING T HE GROUNDING ELECTRODE CONDUCTOR TO THE COLD WATER PIPE SERVING AS THE GROUNDING ELECTRODE. THE POLARITY OF THE TEMPORARY SERVICE WAS REVERSED, AND THE GROUNDIN G ELECTRODE CONDUCTOR WAS ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO AN UNGROUNDED CIRCUIT CONDUCTOR. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED AS HE WAS MAKING THE CONNECTION TO THE WATER PIPE

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 19 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    31
    Event type
    13
    Source
    43
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    9
    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.