Construction Laborer Electrocuted After Handling Damaged Energized Extension Cord in Virginia

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The case of a 19 year old construction laborer who was electrocuted upon handling a damaged extension cord was examined. The employer in this incident was a construction company that had been in business for 10 months building docks, piers and waterfront bulkheads for private residences. A crew was installing a waterfront bulkhead for a private residence to serve as an erosion control retaining wall. After the bulkhead timbers had been established, the workers drilled weep holes for drainage in the bulkhead about 6 inches above the surface of the water using a 6 amp electric drill. They used two 100 foot electrical extension cords to reach the bulkhead from the residence. The receptacle was not equipped with a ground fault circuit interrupter. One of the cords had been damaged and in repairing it the wires in the receptacle were cross wired, establishing a reversed polarity condition. The ground wire inside the plug had pulled loose from its connection. The victim and a coworker had complained of shocks while using this cord some days earlier. After plugging the damaged extension cord into the receptacle end of the good extension cord, the victim laid out the damaged cord which was now energized as he walked toward the bulkhead. Presumably he contacted the receptacle end of the cord and was electrocuted. He was found in the lake about 30 minutes later. Recommendations were made concerning the good repair of all electrical equipment and the need for established safety procedures.
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Electric Injuries Electricity Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Construction-Search Construction-workers Electrical-hazards Electrical-shock FACE-91-05 OSHA Region 3 Power-tools Work-practices
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Electrocution
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9105
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Virginia ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00206902
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-193747
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 91-05, 1991 Mar ; :1-9
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1990/10/11
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c2a148d76eb14779d7f6e8a023c793eb11b03fe38e7b9f96a30603b3b79b73aebb88b406617d7455c87fcb7eda6f2e09aa5fc38b31b7f4e567d8a51617bf97b5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164328/cdc_164328_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 309.01 KB ]