OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #977660

P & E ELECTRIC COMPANY INC

CHATTANOOGA, TN· 1988-09-08T00:00:00

Event: ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, ELECTROCUTED, E PTD, ELEC UTILITY WORK, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, UTILITY POLE
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #105566079
Employer profile: P & E ELECTRIC COMPANY INC
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 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.