Inspection Detail

Inspection: 304313984 - B & B Utility Contractors, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Jackson Area Office

Investigation Summary

An apprentice power line worker was in an aerial lift, working on a new overhead power line being installed along a rural gravel road. He was approaching an existing single-phase 7200-volt overhead power line with a grounded AWG #2 triplex service drop cable in the boom's jib. He was going to connect a service drop to a transformer. The young employee had earlier moved the transformer from an old 12.2-meter-tall pole to a new pole that was 13.7 meters tall. The employee was not wearing his rubber insulating gloves (which were still in the glove bag hanging from the tool board in the bucket), nor had he placed the rubber insulating line hose (which was also in the bucket with him) on the energized phase conductor. No one was observing him while he was working. The employee maneuvered the aerial lift bucket between the phase and neutral conductors on the existing power line, with the bucket at a 45-degree angle to the boom. The end of the triplex cable was inside the bucket with the employee. The existing line was located parallel to and closer to the gravel road than the new line being installed. The employee apparently contacted the phase conductor and was electrocuted. His supervisor found him slumped down in his bucket with the existing phase conductor running diagonally across the top of the bucket's liner and behind the dead employee.

Keywords: ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, ELECTROCUTED, E PTD, ELEC UTILITY WORK, AERIAL LIFT