Inspection Detail

Inspection: 304412000 - United Parcel Service Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Utah Division Of Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

At approximately 4:20 a.m. on August 19, 2003, an employee was retrieving a package that had fallen from a conveyor chute. The conveyor chute was located in a distribution-type trailer that was located at Dock Door Number 141 of the United Parcel Service, UPS, facility; the trailer was being fed packages from the facility conveyor system. The employee laid down on the dock platform to pull the package from a lower level inside the distribution trailer. As the employee contacted the metal frame of the distribution trailer and the building dock surface simultaneously, he was electrocuted as he had provided an equipment grounding path. The trailer had become energized at some prior point in time when a light fixture had fallen resulting in damage to the circuit conductors wherein the lead line had short circuited to the body or frame of the trailer. The equipment grounding conductor for the trailer had not been installed correctly in that a plastic wall anchor had been used on the screw used to attach the grounding conductor to the facility grounding system to where it appeared that the wall anchor may have provided an insulating gap between the ground wire and the j-box. The three separate, but simultaneous, conditions; ineffective grounding path, lead conductor had short circuited to the trailer, and the employee being in contact with the energized trailer and the grounded building structure, provided all the necessary elements needed to electrocute the employee. Coworkers responded and administered Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation until emergency medical personnel arrived. The employee was transported to the Pioneer Valley Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Keywords: ELECTRIC CABLE, ELECTROCUTED, GROUND FAULT, CONVEYOR, ELECTRIC SHOCK, GROUNDING ELECTRODE