Tree Trimming Groundsman Electrocuted after Grasping a Guy Wire that Contacted an Energized Guy Wire in Virginia

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A 20 year old male tree trimming groundsman was electrocuted when he grabbed a guy wire causing it to contact an energized conductor on a utility pole. The employer was a tree service company which had a contract to keep an electric utility right of way clear of brush and trees. On the day of the incident, a five man crew was clearing brush and trees. The victim had completed cutting brush and trees from around the guy wire which was secured to a utility pole at one end and to a steel rod anchored in the ground at the other end. He laid the chain saw he was using on the ground. He grasped the butt of a fallen tree with one hand, and the guy wire with the other hand. When he grasped the guy wire, it swayed, due to approximately 8 inches of slack in the wire, and contacted an uninsulated jumper wire which connected a 1 amp fuse to a 14,400 volt powerline. It is recommended that a jobsite survey be conducted before starting any job to identify potential hazards and implement appropriate controls
  
  that existing safety programs be reviewed and revised to include measures that enable workers to recognize and control hazards
  
  and that utility companies avoid placing transformers and jumper wires on utility poles in close proximity to unguarded, uninsulated guy wires.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Electric Injuries Electricity Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Electric-power-transmission-lines Electrical-hazards FACE-90-34 Occupational-accidents OSHA Region 5
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Electrocution ; Landscaping Services
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9034
• 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:
  3 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00206143
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-183862
• 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 90-34 ; 1990 Dec ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  56 - Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1990/05/07
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:790188840ea6739e49f8d550058b348414f75a2e630ef1cfdc2266cfbc030c75554ceb1ed922183f2041f06e4cce522f43588990f9d8cdd7c22bec226ea470fb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164335/cdc_164335_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 250.35 KB ]