Inspection Detail

Inspection: 125823393 - Smud

Inspection Information - Office: Sacramento District Office

Investigation Summary

A car struck a utility pole located next to a boulevard. The car sheared the pole off near its base. The overhead power line held the pole up, but it was leaning. Upon notification by the police of the accident, the electric utility dispatched a power line worker to the scene. The power line worker elevated himself approximately 6.1 meters in an aerial lift mounted on a Ford F550. (The aerial lift could extent to 11 meters, and the aerial lift bucket had a 160-kilogram rated capacity.) A cable and cable strand supported by the pole was slack and drooping across the boulevard. To raise the cable, he placed a rope on the cable and on the broken pole. Believing that the police on the scene had stopped traffic, he began to raise the cable and cable strand. A tractor-trailer travelling on the boulevard struck the drooping cable and cable strand. The impact pulled and then released tension on the strand, and the strand struck the aerial lift bucket. The force of the strand striking the bucket knocked the employee out of the bucket, and he fell to the ground. (He had not been using personal fall arrest equipment at the time of the accident.) He was hospitalized for injuries sustained in the fall.

Keywords: EJECTED, COMMUNICATION CABLE, POWER LINE WORKER, ELEC UTILITY WORK, FALL, FALL PROTECTION, STRUCK BY, TRACTOR TRAILER, AERIAL LIFT