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 #978528

E GI III,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,UNGUARDED LIVE PARTS,UNTRAINED

Event
E GI III,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTROCUTED,UNGUARDED LIVE PARTS,UNTRAINED
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
978528
Report ID
950411

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD POWER LINE

Investigation abstract

A SURVEYING TECHNICIAN FOR AN ENGINEERING FIRM WAS SURVEYING A SITE FOR AERIAL P HOTOGRAPHY. HE AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE LAYING OUT A PLASTIC PANEL TO FORM A CR OSS FOR THE CENTER SECTION MARKER. THIS MARKER WAS LOCATED ON A RAILWAY RIGHT-OF -WAY BENEATH SOME OVERHEAD RAILWAY POWER LINES. (THE POWER LINES WERE USED TO CH ARGE STORAGE BATTERIES THAT SUPPLIED POWER TO THE RAIL SIGNALLING SYSTEM.) THE 2 40-VOLT POWER LINES WERE ONLY 4 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AT THE TOP OF A HILL WHERE THE MARKER WAS TO BE PLACED. THE SURVEYOR WAS IN A KNEELING POSITION UNDER THE POWER LINES; AND, WHEN HE STOOD UP, HE CONTACTED THE LINES AND WAS ELECTROCUTED.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 23 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    5
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    218
    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.