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 #998690

BURN,CLOTHING,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,PROTECTIVE GROUNDING,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK,UTILITY POLE

Event
BURN,CLOTHING,OVERHEAD POWER LINE,PROTECTIVE GROUNDING,ELECTRICAL,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRIC SHOCK,UTILITY POLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
998690
Report ID
552700

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

An employee was transferring two services to a new three-phase 4/0 line from an lower leg, with the exit wound being in his left lower leg. He was hospitalized for his injuries. old single 1/0 line. The original line was to be salvaged. This work was done fr om a 15.2-meter-tall utility pole, and the employee had to climb the pole. (The crew's aerial lift could not be used.) The old line had been deenergized by open cutouts, but it had not yet been grounded. A personal ground consisting of a No . 4 AWG copper jumper was connected by the employee from the 1/0 neutral on the pole to the existing line. During the course of work the copper jumper came off the neutral as the existing line contacted an 8000-volt, 4/0 ACSR energized line , 169 feet away. The employee sustained thermal burns to his right arm and left

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 49 M

    Nature of injury
    10
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    13
    Source
    15
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    6
    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.