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 #800243

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,COMMUNICATION CABLE,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,INDUCED CURRENT,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK,SYSTEM GROUNDING

Event
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,COMMUNICATION CABLE,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,INDUCED CURRENT,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK,SYSTEM GROUNDING
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
800243
Report ID
454510

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - INDUCED VOLTAGE ON GROUND WIRE

Investigation abstract

Two employees were installing optical-fiber cable between two electric power tra . The employee on the ground went up the tower to assist the injured employee an d received an electric shock. He was hospitalized for this injury for a period o f 2 days. nsmission towers supporting a 230-kilovolt overhead power line. One of the emplo yees was on the ground, and the other was on the top of one of the towers. The e mployee on the tower pulled the optical-fiber cable from one side of the tower t o the other and began to lower the cable. As he was lowering the cable, a loop f ormed, and it hung up between the lower tower arm and the ground wire. The emplo yee climbed down to the lower arm to free the optical cable. However, instead of pulling the loop up and over the ground wire, he took the clip for the ground w ire off the tower arm. He was electrocuted by induced voltage in the ground wire

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    31
    Event type
    14
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    18
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 47 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    14
    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.