OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14543094
DILLARD SMITH CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INC.
MACON, GA—
Event description
ELECTRIC SHOCK - DIRECT CONTACT WITH OVERHEAD LINE
Investigation abstract
A JOURNEYMAN LINEMAN WORKING FROM AN AERIAL LIFT WAS MOVING OVERHEAD POWER LINES E SO THAT HE COULD ATTACH THE OTHER END OF THE JUMPER TO THE NEW NEUTRAL. AS HE WAS ATTACHING THE JUMPER, HE LEANED AWAY FROM THE POLE WITH ONE HAND ON THE JUMP ER CLIP. THE RIGHT SIDE OF HIS NECK THEN CONTACTED THE ENERGIZED PHASE CONDUCTOR . OTHER EMPLOYEES, WHO HEARD THE SOUNDS, LOWERED THE AERIAL LIFT; HOWEVER, THE E MPLOYEE HAD BEEN ELECTROCUTED. FROM AN OLD UTILITY POLE TO A NEW ONE TO FACILITATE A ROAD WIDENING PROJECT. TH E 7200-VOLT, THREE-PHASE FEEDER RAN THRU THE NEW POLE, AND A TEMPORARY WOODEN CR OSSARM HAD BEEN INSTALLED ON IT SOME WEEKS EARLIER. TWO OF THE THREE PHASES OF T HE FEEDER WERE ATTACHED ON TOP OF THE CROSSARM AND WERE COVERED BY RUBBER BLANKE TS. THE THIRD LINE RAN BELOW THE CROSSARM, UNATTACHED AND NOT BLANKETED. THE LIN EMAN ATTACHED A JUMPER TO THE ORIGINAL NEUTRAL AND MOVED THE AERIAL LIFT UP THE POLE TO A POINT JUST UNDER THE WOODEN CROSSARM, WITH THE CONTROLS UNDER THE ENER GIZED PHASE CONDUCTOR. THE EMPLOYEE MOVED AWAY FROM THE CONTROLS TOWARDS THE POL
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 55 M
- Nature of injury
- 10
- Part of body
- 20
- Event type
- 7
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.