Journeyman Electrician Electrocuted when Lockout Attempt Fails: FACE 89-18

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A 39 year old male journeyman electrician died when, after deenergizing one controlled access area, he mistakenly entered an identical energized area through a hatch with a defective lock, and made contact with an energized conductor. The employer, a large pulp and paper mill, has a full time safety and health officer, a written safety policy and detailed safety procedures. The victim had been employed there for the past 12 years as a journeyman electrician. At the time of the incident the paper mill was in the middle of a scheduled shutdown during which time the mill operation ceased by 50%. The victim and a coworker were engaged in routine maintenance and inspection of an electrostatic precipitator in a large recovery boiler. The transformers controlling the precipitators were locate inside two 25 foot by 37 foot high precipitator penthouses. The only access was through separate 24 inch diameter access hatches located on the roof. The company used a sophisticated captive key lockout system to control access to the penthouses. The victim had successfully locked out transformers 1, 3, and 5. To obtain the needed key to the penthouse he would have had to travel down the steps from the eighth floor to the first floor, obtain the key and returned to the eighth floor. He commented to the coworker that the lock to the penthouse hatch was broken and that they could save themselves the trip by entering the hatch. The coworker asked twice whether the area was safe. The victim replied that it was, entered the hatch, and was electrocuted. It was recommended that periodic safety inspections be made to be certain all equipment was in working order.
• 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
  • Paper
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • FACE-89-18
  • OSHA Region 4
  • Paper-manufacturing-industry
  • Electrical-hazards
  • Electrical-workers
  • Accident-analysis
  • Safety-practices
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Electrocution
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House) ; Worker Deaths by Electrocution: NIOSH 2000-115 ; Worker Deaths by Electrocution: NIOSH 98-131
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8918
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Tennessee ; OSHA Region 4
• 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
• Volume:
  1989
• Issue:
  18
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00199129
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB91-212852
• 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 89-18, 1989 Apr ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1988/12/17
• Resource Number:
  FACE 89-18
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164367/cdc_164367_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 314.20 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ca21b9a43971ec8b7b38c21c7e0a9a24a8b50029bfd96692a36eb0850d6d88db7ac5a92542df66fd7448e44bc159586700689862fd0db779ddd94b5f9cf62dda