Abstract: An employee was welding bar joists as part of the steel erection phase of a construction project. A truck crane was hoisting a bar joist into position, 5.8 meters above the ground. The welder, who was on the center steel girder support beam, grabbed one end of the joist to stabilize it so that his coworker at the far end could position it into a recess in a masonry wall. The joist drifted or was blown into a nearby 8320-volt (4800-volt-to-ground) overhead power line. The welder received an electric shock, which caused him to fall to the ground. The employee sustained fractured bones and burns to his fingertips on both hands and to his hip. The injured employee was still hospitalized 3 weeks after the accident. He was in a coma for the first 6 days. When he regained consciousness, his was speech incoherent, and he needed surgery to his left hand.