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 #998138

BURN,ELECTRIC ARC,PROTECTIVE GROUNDING,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,BUSBAR,E PTD,SUBSTATION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL

Event
BURN,ELECTRIC ARC,PROTECTIVE GROUNDING,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,BUSBAR,E PTD,SUBSTATION,ELEC UTILITY WORK,FALL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
998138
Report ID
523700

Event description

BURNS AND FALL - GROUND FAULT ON ENERGIZED BUSBAR

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS INSTALLING A PROTECTIVE GROUND ACROSS A BREAKER IN A 13.8-KILOVO LT CABINET IN A SUBSTATION. HE WAS USING A HOT STICK TO MANUEVER THE GROUNDING C LIP. THE CLIP CAME TOO CLOSE TO THE THREE BUS BARS, ONE OF WHICH WAS ENERGIZED. THIS CAUSED AN ELECTRIC ARC, WHICH GAVE THE EMPLOYEE FLASH BURNS AND KNOCKED HIM OFF THE LADDER.

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 32 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    9
    Event type
    14
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    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.