Municipal Utility Worker Electrocuted When a Backhoe Strikes an Underground Electrical Transmission Line

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On June 16, 1995, a 28-year-old male municipal utility worker was electrocuted when a backhoe struck a 4,100 volt underground electrical transmission line. A four-man crew was attempting to determine the source of a water leak in front of a private home and had dug a trench to examine the water lines. The victim was standing on the lawn and holding a shut off key that was attached to a water valve when the backhoe severed the electrical transmission cable. The electrical current traveled from the transmission line, through standing water, to a copper pipe, to the metal shut-off key, electrocuting the victim. The backhoe operator was not injured. NJDOH FACE investigators concluded that, in order to prevent similar incidents in the future, these safety guidelines should be followed: 1. Employers should always call for utility company mark-outs before excavating near underground utility lines. 2. Employers should ensure that heavy equipment operators are properly trained before using the machinery. 3. Employers should ensure that employees are properly supervised at work sites. 4. Employers should use non-conductive tools when excavating near utility lines.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Electric Injuries Electricity Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Electric-properties Electrical-conductivity Electrical-hazards Electrical-safety Electrocutions Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 2 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Training Traumatic-injuries Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Electrocution ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE95NJ061
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026612
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-100024
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 95NJ061, 1995 Nov ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1996
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1991/09/30
• End Date:
  2005/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2d106efdbc74b16df9cc15eaf6ed510908143bebc1e0cdc62acda6af9f784ae82bd8cfe755f07109f2df3f453bd936a782be01ab3d5c5ce61e1a5ad4363ca47e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170060/cdc_170060_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 22.63 KB ]