Inspection Detail

Inspection: 302229620 - Watson Electrical Construction Co

Inspection Information - Office: Nc Department Of Labor - Charlotte

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was an electrician with approximately 12 years experience in the field. He had, however, only been employed by this employer for approximately 5 months. On the day of the accident, Employee #1 had returned to the work site from a dental visit and accessed the fourth floor of the building under construction. Once there, he began assisting two high school seniors who were working part-time for Watson Electrical Construction Company under a specially approved state program for gaining hands-on knowledge in a specialty craft. For approximately 45 minutes after returning, Employee #1 had assisted in pulling one 56-foot run of 250 MCM cable, and had attempted to pull a second run. However, the available cable on the spool was insufficient in length, and the decision was made to re-reel it. One of the temporary employees was rotating the reel, and Employee #1 was applying strain to the cable in an attempt to ensure a tight re-reeling. The pressure being applied to the cable in this effort caused Employee #1 to travel backwards slowly, until his movement caused him to step into an unguarded 43-inch by 54-inch floor opening. His fall was not witnessed by either of the temporary employees, one of which was applying color-coding to the cable runs already cut, and the second was concentrating on the re-reeling of the cable. Realization that Employee #1 had gone through the floor opening came when the 30-inch diameter cable reel was pulled from his hands. Employee #1 fell a distance of between 45 and 50 feet, and he was followed down by the cable reel.

Keywords: ELECTRIC CABLE, ELECTRICIAN, FALL, FLOOR OPENING, CONCUSSION, UNGUARDED