Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311860258 - Westech Industries Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Sacramento District Office

Investigation Summary

On April 17, 2008 at approximately 11:30 am Employee #1 was seriously injured while replacing a section of aerial telephone cable (in joint use with PG&E power poles). Employee #1 was stretching 3/8" polyrope from one end of the line (the winch end) to the other end of the line (the reel end) which would have attached to the phone cable, connected by a wire "sock" that looks like a Chinese finger puzzle. However, Employee #1 ran out of polyrope before they got to the reel end. In order to make up the difference Employee #2 tied 1/2" Neptco Detectable Muletape (DT1250P) to the end of the poly rope and connected the muletape to the sock and cable. Employee #1 was at the head of the cable, helping guide it through the rugged terrain as is it was being winched in by the truck winch at the opposite end. About 25 to 60 feet from the reel, Employee #3 and Employee #4 stated they felt the rope tension go loose, they radioed Employee #1 and Employee #2 at the reel end to see what had happened and learned that Employee #1 had been injured. It was determined by the ER and the Division during the accident investigation that during the pulling process the muletape broke (rated for 1250 lbs) and came into contact with the overhead power lines approximately 15 feet above the hand strung rope line. Employee #1 was holding a section of the wire sock not covered by electrical tape and was electrocuted when the tracer-wire in the muletape made contact with the electrical line (12KV).

Keywords: OVERHEAD POWER LINE, ELECTRIC SHOCK