General Foreman Electrocuted While Testing Circuits in North Carolina

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A case study of an electrocution resulting from the testing of electrical circuits was examined. Employees of an electrical contracting firm under contract to the local electric company were replacing an existing high voltage distribution switch located in a commercial/residential development. To install the new switch, a power outage was required for the morning. A worker for the local electric company arrived at the site in the morning to coordinate the power outage and proceeded to another job in the area. Prior to the return of the electric company employee, two workers of the electrical contractor arrived at the site and discussed whether the distribution switch had been deenergized. The assistant general manager removed the installation barrier and, using a tic tracer, attempted to determine if the distribution system was deenergized. The assistant general manager guided the tic tracer with the right hand and contacted one phase of the 23,000 Volt (V) source
  
  the contact allowed 13,200V to pass to the ground through the body. The crew worker received minor flash burns to the eyes and face and felt electrified, shaken, and proceeded to run. The assistant general manager was dead on arrival at a local hospital. An investigation of the incident revealed that the assistant general manager was not wearing the required personal protective equipment and that the system had not been deenergized and properly grounded. The authors recommend that the employer must enforce proper work procedures. Communication and coordination policies between the power company and electrical contractor must be followed, and employees must be assigned tasks commensurate with experience and skills.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Electricity Hazardous Substances Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Analytical-methods Analytical-models Electrical-industry Electrical-properties FACE-85-16 Hazardous-materials Industrial-hazards Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 4 Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Electrocution
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8516
• 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:00136658
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB86-125895
• 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 85-16, 1985 Apr ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1985
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1985/04/13
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f9cbde2f97e89ef40ee5f55179d6678fbbaa27fa13b168b952f3757e94bc2871ac2fd99a207a7c8667f84ee2038b73ef2449b04a5368afe05c14479db0615569
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164614/cdc_164614_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 245.92 KB ]