Inspection Detail

Inspection: 314024852 - Bird Electric

Inspection Information - Office: Wichita Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 5:45 p.m. on March 23, 2010, an employee, a journeyman lineman powerline foreman, was working from the bucket of an aerial lift, 1998 GMC C7500 vehicle with a T Rex 5TC- 55 bucket. He was making the first attachment of the grounding conductor at the outlay level. The employee told his groundman that the 'O Die' was not in the bucket with him, and for the groundman to retrieve it from the other vehicle approximately 6 poles to the west. While returning, the groundman, approximately 100 yards away, saw that the employee was slumped over in the bucket. The groundman contacted the other crew members, who were further to the west on the same line. They lowered the bucket and called emergency medical services. The employee did not have enough hours as a journeyman lineman for certification, but had received all training for certification as a journeyman lineman, promoted to foreman in August of 2008. The employee did not install or remove jumper clamps between phase one and phase three conductors properly and was not wearing rubber gloves when contact was made with his back to a line cut out while holding onto the grounding conductor to be crimped for installation. Insulating devices, such as blankets or line covers were not used, nor was the line deenergized prior to work commencing. The employee and groundman both were wearing hardhats, and the bucket truck was grounded by the use of a grounding rod. The groundman contacted emergency medical services, and the other crew working on the job. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started, and continued through the arrival and transport by Reno County emergency medical services to the Promise Regional Medical Center in Hutchinson, KS, where the employee was declared dead.

Keywords: PPE, ELECTROCUTED, ELECTRIC SHOCK, WORK SURFACE, AERIAL LIFT