Inspection Detail

Inspection: 308981414 - Hyatt Regency Guam

Inspection Information - Office: San Francisco Ro

Investigation Summary

On April 23, 2005, Employee #1 was changing the belts on a commercial washing machine at a hotel in Guam. He was holding onto a conduit, while he used a pipe as a lever to pivot a motor on the machine. The conduit wires were connected to a 220-volt alternating current (AC) circuit breaker. The conduit came apart at a coupling, causing the insulation to be scraped off the wires inside the conduit. Employee #1 was electrocuted and killed. Two proposed violations for the hotel included failure to provide fall protection for employees on top of the washing machine and failure to deenergize the circuit breaker supplying power to the conduit wires after the accident. Two violations were proposed for the company that the hotel hired to install the electrical equipment involved in the accident. That company did not install the equipment in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, as evidenced by no grounding wire in the conduit between the power source and an automatic dispenser to the washing machine that was maintained by Employee #1. The second violation involved failure to support the conduit within one foot of each side of the coupling that separated from the conduit during the accident.

Keywords: CONDUIT, ELECTROCUTED, ELECTRIC SHOCK, FALL PROTECTION, WASHING MACHINE, UNSTABLE POSITION