OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14235469

COLLINS TREE SERVICE

MPLS, MN— 1985-09-16T00:00:00

Event: ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, E GI III, OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRICAL, ELECTROCUTED, NECK, UNTRAINED, TREE TRIMMING
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Accident-driven
Activity number: #2914778
Employer profile: COLLINS TREE SERVICE
Summary number: 14235469
Report ID: 552700

Event description

ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE

Investigation abstract

AN EMPLOYEE WAS ASSIGNED THE TASK OF REMOVING AN ELM TREE FROM THE BACKYARD OF A RESIDENCE. THE EMPLOYEE HAD CLIMBED THE TREE USING TREE CLIMBERS AND WAS CUTTIN G BRANCHES WHILE HE WAS TIED IN BY A SAFETY BELT. AS HE WAS CUTTING OR LOWERING BRANCHES, HIS NECK CONTACTED AN 8000-VOLT OVERHEAD POWER LINE. THE EMPLOYEE WAS ELECTROCUTED. THE CURRENT ENTRY POINTS WERE AT HIS NECK AND AT HIS RIGHT FOOT, W HERE THE SPUR ON HIS RIGHT CLIMBER WAS EMBEDDED IN THE TREE.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 25 M

Nature of injury
10

Part of body
19

Event type
12

Source
15

Occupation code
889

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.