Abstract: A three-person crew for a metropolitan transit company was cleaning switchgear in a substation on an electric railway system. The substation was supplied by a 16.5-kilovolt overhead power line owned by an electric utility company. The substation coverts the 16.5 kilovolts AC to the 700 volts DC used on the railway. The main circuit breakers feeding the substation were opened and locked out with padlocks. Two of the power line workers were inside the substation, vacuuming dust from the switchgear. The third power line worker was outside the substation. While kneeling, he contacted a lightning arrester connected to the supply side of the main station circuit breakers and received an electric shock. (The current entry and exit points were his hand and his knee.) He died of electrocution in a hospital about 1 hour after the accident.