26-Year-Old Electrician’s Helper Electrocuted in South Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  An electrician's helper employed by an electrical contracting company was electrocuted while wiring a fluorescent light fixture in a suspended ceiling. Five electricians and helpers were wiring fluorescent light fixtures in a suspended ceiling of a new wing of a hospital. The panels for the drop ceiling were not in place at the time. The crew were to wire emergency fixtures on a separate circuit and then deenergize existing temporary lights. Deciding this was too slow a procedure, the crew disconnected the temporary lights and wired the remaining fixtures while some circuits were energized. Coworkers warned the crew to test circuits to determine if they were energized, but the victim elected not to use a circuit tester. Members of the crew reported receiving shocks during the installation process. The victim was standing on a wooden ladder
  
  he was wet with perspiration. He leaned against the metal grid work in the ceiling while extending his body and arms to reach the conductors. He contacted a 110 volt power source during this procedure and was electrocuted. Recommendations arising out of this accident include: deenergizing the conductors and taking appropriate action to ensure that the conductor cannot be accidentally reenergized when working with electrical conductors
  
  testing circuits before working on them to determine that they are deenergized
  
  and the institution of a company wide training program for safety.
  
  
• 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 Electrical-hazards Electrical-shock Electrical-workers FACE-86-33 OSHA Region 4 Safety-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/NIOSHFACE8633
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  South 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:00170392
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-222089
• 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 86-33, 1986 Dec ; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1986/06/02
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:121ccee307393e12bbdf501b0a14198454cefbe084a230a66efdbfb011aa47f52811f606792935f197d4350a301b180f4a1bf31e986f17cc31c27f17f09f8a0e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164583/cdc_164583_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 249.93 KB ]