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 #979781

OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SHOCK,BURN,CLOTHING,ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL

Event
OVERHEAD POWER LINE,ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SHOCK,BURN,CLOTHING,ELEC PROTECT EQUIP,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
979781
Report ID
950411

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

A POWER LINE WORKER WAS WORKING FROM A UTILITY POLE ATTACHING A GROUND LINE FROM ONE NEUTRAL CONDUCTOR TO ANOTHER. HE CONTACTED A 7200-VOLT PHASE CONDUCTOR AND RECEIVED AN ELECTRIC SHOCK. HE FELL ABOUT 29 FEET TO THE GROUND. HE WAS TRANSPOR TED TO A HOSPITAL WHERE HE WAS TREATED FOR MULTIPLE SEVERE BURNS AND A SEPARATED SHOULDER. AS A RESULT OF HIS BURNS, HE HAD HIS RIGHT ARM AND LEG AMPUTATED; AND , AT THE TIME THE REPORT WAS MADE, THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY THAT HIS OTHER ARM WO ULD HAVE TO BE AMPUTATED AS WELL.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 35 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    7
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    18
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.