Assistant Pool Manager Electrocuted

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The case of a 17 year old female assistant pool manager who was electrocuted when she contacted an ungrounded electric motor was evaluated. The victim had worked for 3 months as an assistant pool manager for a municipality. A written safety program describing safety procedures was operational, and employees also received a 1 week orientation and on the job training for assigned tasks. She was told to add soda ash to the pool water. Apparently she entered the pump room, which was below ground level and adjacent to the pool. The concrete floor was covered with water, and she was barefooted. The victim filled the plastic drum with water, plugged in the mixing motor, and placed the motor switch in the on position. She was probably in the process of adding soda ash to the drum when she contacted the mixing motor which had developed a faulty ground and was energized. An inspection of the pump room revealed that the mixing motor was old and in poor working condition. The grounding pin on the male plug had been removed from the power cord, resulting in a faulty electrical ground. The one wire to the ground fault circuit interrupter contained in the junction box was disconnected. Another wire, the ground conductor to the ground fault circuit interrupter had not been connected, and a wire nut had been used instead. It is recommended that employers routinely inspect and repair or replace equipment that is faulty, damaged, or presents a safety hazard. The electrical equipment should have been in a room with adequate drainage to prevent water accumulation during normal operation or filter maintenance. Had the floor been dry and the victim wearing insulated boots or shoes, this fatality may have been prevented.
• 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 Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Electrical-equipment Electrical-hazards Electrical-shock FACE-88-35 OSHA Region 4 Safety-research Work-practices
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Electrocution ; Youth
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8835
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; 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:
  3 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00186214
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB89-188700
• 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 88-35, 1988 Nov ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1988/07/25
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bdc77d68dab2a31915329244ab3ea9c4b3d12e49f3f4f3fa7d33c6612bd7daf0eb021a7e92455502761cc3890bad0be6cd290654607f82ee22e50509e71eb120
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164478/cdc_164478_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 248.40 KB ]