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 #977660

ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,UTILITY POLE

Event
ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,ELECTROCUTED,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL,FALL PROTECTION,UTILITY POLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
977660
Report ID
454713

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK & FALL - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS INSTALLING A SQUIRREL GUARD FOR A TRANSFORMER ON A UTILITY POLE. HE WAS WORKING AT A HEIGHT OF ABOUT 25 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. HE WAS WEARING PO LE CLIMBERS AND A SAFETY BELT AND STRAP, BUT HE WAS NOT WEARING ELECTRICAL PROTE CTIVE EQUIPMENT. HE HAD COMPLETED THE INSTALLATION WHEN ONE OF HIS POLE CLIMBERS CUT OUT. HE REACTED TO THE FALL BY THROWING UP HIS RIGHT HAND, WHICH CONTACTED A 12-KILOVOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. HIS LEG WAS IN CONTACT WITH THE NEUTRAL CONDU CTOR AT THE SAME INSTANT. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 48 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    31
    Event type
    14
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    575
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    18
    Hazardous substance
    8870
    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.