Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315193656 - Coastal Electric Cooperative Inc

Inspection Information - Office: Sc Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation

Investigation Summary

Coastal Electric Cooperative (an electric utility) and Sumter Utilities (an electric power contractor) were installing new utility poles along a highway. An engineer working for the utility went to a jobsite to observe the installation of poles by the contractor. Contractor employees were using a Terex Telelect Commander 4000 digger-derrick mounted on a Marsh Buggy (Model No. WMB50402416PC) to set and remove poles. The workers had positioned the marsh buggy at a bridge. When they were removing an old pole, the vehicle, facing east, stuck in the muddy marsh. The workers tried to get the vehicle turned to the north so that they could more easily extract it from the mud. To rotate the vehicle, they used the turret-mount winch on the digger-derrick, securing the winch's synthetic rope around a small tree stump and running it under a steel bar welded between the pontoons on the front of the vehicle. The workers turned the vehicle, but it slipped back into the rut as the workers started moving it out of the mud. The rope broke and struck the engineer on the left and right forearms and hand. A superintendent for the contractor drove the injured employee to a hospital. He was hospitalized for 3 days for lacerations to his forearms, a fracture in his left hand, and the prevention of infection. (The tree stump had been cut, and the rope removed from the winch before the inspection, so they could not be examined.)

Keywords: DIGGER-DERRICK, FRACTURE, STUCK, OVERLOADED, EQUIPMENT FAILURE, LACERATION, ELEC UTILITY WORK, FLYING OBJECT, LOAD LINE, WINCH