Inspection Detail

Inspection: 310450465 - C Reading Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: State Of New Mexico Environment Department Occupational Health & Safety Bureau

Investigation Summary

On the morning of November 29, 2006, Employee #1, an apprentice plumber for C. Reading, Inc., was dispatched to a residence to unclog a kitchen sink. When attempts to clear the sink from inside the house were unsuccessful, he dug n approximately 3 ft wide by 1 1/2 ft deep hole to reach the main drain pipe outside the house so that a rotating sewer machine could be used. Cable from the rotating machine was pushed into the pipe. Employee #1 was using a hose to help unclog the pipe, and the hole he had dug filled with water. He was apparently standing in the hole when he suffered a severe electric shock and yelled out. The homeowner saw him lying on the ground and called the company. When coworkers arrived, they found Employee #1, face down, with the lower half of his body in the hole. Paramedics were called and Employee #1 was transported to Eastern New Mexico Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:49 a.m. The power cord to the rotating sewer machine was spliced on the plug end, which had no ground pin attached. The extension cord being used also had no ground pin attached and was plugged into a light-duty household cord belonging to the homeowner; this was plugged into a standard receptacle inside the house. An unprotected, energized wire ran down the exterior wall of the house from a panel box just above the water-filled hole in which Employee #1 was standing when he was electrocuted.

Keywords: WORK RULES, ELECTROCUTED, CONSTRUCTION, CLOGGED, INEXPERIENCE, ELEC CIRC PART--MISC, PLUMBING, ELECTRIC CORD, ELECTRICAL BOX, WATER