OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #823294
E GI IV,ELECTRICAL,ELECTRICIAN,ELECTROCUTED,LASER,ELECTRICAL WORK,INTERLOCK,LOCKOUT,ELEC CIRC PART--MISC
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH ENERGIZED PARTS
Investigation abstract
A project engineer informed two maintenance workers that a Rofin-Sinar 1000-watt r should be deenergized (once before the drawer was opened). The electrician, wh o had received his training from the laser manufacturer, said not to. The engine er walked away after the electrician completed the adjustments to the left side of the high-voltage cabinet. The electrician then opened the right door, opened the drawer containing the other four tetrodes, and began adjusting them. The sec ond maintenance worker came over, and the two employees discussed the problem wi th the laser. The electrician then returned to his work. His coworker informed h im that his procedure was unsafe and noted that the job could be done safety wit h the equipment deenergized. The electrician ignored this advice and continued t o work. As the second maintenance worker turned leave, he heard and saw sparking carbon dioxide laser was not cutting to standards. One of the maintenance worke and saw his coworker slump to the floor. The electrician had contacted energize d parts operating at 21.5 to 30 kilovolts, dc, and was electrocuted. The manufac turer had equipped each of the high-voltage cabinet doors with an interlock to d eenergize the enclosed circuits; however, the interlocks on both front doors had been bypassed during the adjustment and might even have been bypassed well befo rehand. rs, who was the head of the maintenance department and an experienced electricia n, went with the project engineer, who showed him that the discharge current on one of the eight tetrodes was low. The electrician opened the left door at the f ront of high-voltage cabinet and pulled out the drawer containing four of the ei ght tetrodes. He then began adjusting the discharge current using a small pocket screwdriver. The laser was being used in production at the time and being opera ted by a production worker. The engineer twice asked the electrician if the lase
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 213
- 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.