Abstract: Some employees were laying 203-millimeter-diameter water main pipe. There were no overhead power lines when they began working. However, as they progressed in their work, they approached an overhead power line. The employees were using two different excavators, one of which was larger than the other. At the driveway of a house near the power line, they switched to the larger excavator. The operator swung under the power line so that another employee could hook the pipe to the excavator bucket. That employee hooked the PVC pipe with a wire rope choker and walked away. The choker came loose, and he returned to the pipe to fix it. As he was holding onto the chocker, the boom on the excavator contacted the power line. The employee received an electric shock and was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead of electrocution.