Inspection Detail

Inspection: 304310410 - Mdr Construction, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Jackson Area Office

Investigation Summary

A four-employee power line crew was working on a 13.2-kilovolt (7.62-kilovolt-to-ground) overhead power line. The crew was setting a new 12.2-meter-tall utility pole between two existing poles to take remove slack from a 120-meter span. A power line worker on the crew had elevated the three conductors, with the road-side phase conductor tied to a winch behind him, the center phase conductor lying across the top of his aerial lift bucket, and the last phase conductor lying in a jib about a meter in front of the bucket. He had placed 2 lengths of 1.8-meter-long rubber insulating line hose on the road-side phase conductor and 1 length on each of the other two conductors. After the new pole was set, the power line worker had released the conductors. He positioned his aerial lift bucket between the road-side and center phase conductors on the north side of the new pole. The power line worker had four armor rods, a tool board filled with hand tools, and coils of tie wire in the bucket with him. The crew supervisor was on the digger-derrick truck, and the other two crewmembers were on the ground. The AWG 1/0 ASCR road-side and center phase conductors were 1.13 meters apart, and the four armor rods were about 1.3 meters long. The aerial lift bucket liner was 552 millimeters wide by 708 millimeters wide by 1.01 meters deep. As the employee was installing an armor rod on the road-side phase conductor, it apparently contacted an uninsulated portion of the center phase conductor. This caused a phase-to-phase electrical fault, which later enveloped the third phase. The employee received an electric shock and burns from the ensuing electric arc. He died with third-degree burns over more than 60 percent of his body.

Keywords: BURN, ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, ELECTRIC ARC, OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, E PTD, ELEC UTILITY WORK, ELECTRIC SHOCK, ELECTRICAL FAULT