Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 003A Hazard:

29 CFR 1926.416(a)(1): Employees were permitted to work in proximity to electric power circuits and were not protected against electric shock by de-energizing and grounding the circuits or effectively guarding the circuits by insulation or other means: (a) ADF Cable Construction, Sand Hill Road and Forest Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania - Employees worked removing (wrecking out) seven aerial fiber optic telecommunication cables, each over 4,500 feet long, installed on 70-foot high metal utility poles. These utility poles also had exposed energized power conductors, comprising a 69kV system, running above the fiber optic cables, and the employer did not have the energized power conductors deenergized and grounded or guarded effectively by insulation or other means. As the employees removed the first fiber optic cable using a powered reeler on the rear of an Altec A40P Aerial Cable Placer Bucket Truck, known as Truck 55, as well as a capstan winch on another truck, to wind this cable in full length onto a spool, the tail end of the fiber optic cable came out of a loop (one of many) used to temporarily suspend the seven fiber optic cables from the strand during the wreck out. After coming out of the loop, the tail end of the cable flipped up contacting the energized primary. The metallic foil wrapping around the optical fiber within the cable carried the electrical current about 1,500 feet through the cable to Truck 55, where the electric current returned to ground through the truck's two front tires and the rear driver side tire and through the employee standing on the ground operating the reeler at the truck's rear passenger side, resulting in electric shock and burns, on or about December 11, 2020. Abatement certification and documentation is required within 10 days after abatement date. The certification shall include a statement that abatement is complete, the date and method of abatement, and state that employees and their representatives were informed of this abatement. Abatement documentation shall include documents demonstrating that abatement is complete, such as evidence of the purchase or repair of equipment, photographic or video evidence of abatement, or other written records.