UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

A crew of employees was laying 254-millimeter-diameter pipe for a city. The employees were using a 3.7-meter-long chain to lift the pipes. An overhead power line was located adjacent to the work area, but the employer had not contacted the electric utility owning the line. The day before the accident, an excavator had contacted the power line while the operator had been moving it through a gate that was about 61 meters from the work area. (The operator indicated that it was common practice to work near overhead power lines.) As the employees were laying the pipe on the day of the accident, one of them was touching the chain, which was attached to the excavator's bucket. When the operator lifted the bucket about 2.7 meters, the top of the boom elbow contacted the power line. The employee touching the chain was electrocuted. The employer had not adequately trained its employees in safe operations in the vicinity of overhead power lines. Additionally, on the morning of the accident, the site superintendent responsible for the overall jobsite instructed only one of the employees in the task to be performed.