OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #978528
ANDERSON PASSARELLI & ASSOCIATES
VAIL, AZ·
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 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.