An analysis was performed of an accident in which a 21 year old male lineman trainee employed by an electrical contracting company was electrocuted after he contacted an energized pickup truck. He had been working as part of a four man crew converting a single phase 7200 volt overhead powerline to a three phase 7200 volt overhead powerline system. An aerial bucket truck provided access to the lines while a pickup truck was used as the utility vehicle. The conversion had been completed and the crew was removing the deenergized single phase powerline from the utility poles. The bucket truck crew, the victim and the foreman, had cut the single phase powerline and dropped one end to the ground. When the other end of the line with attached come along was dropped, it contacted the ground and the pickup truck. When dropped the line recoiled causing it to contact an energized jumper wire on a utility pole one span away. The victim went to apparently move the pickup, removed his protective rubber glove, and grasped the energized truck door handle. This provided a path to ground, and the victim was electrocuted. It is recommended that established safe work procedures for covering or insulating all energized powerlines and jumper wires be enforced, that alternative methods be investigated for lowering deenergized powerlines to ground level, that worksites be free of nonessential equipment, that chassis frame energization alarm systems be placed on all vehicles used near powerlines, that personal protective equipment be checked on a regular basis, and that training programs be reevaluated.
Fatal Accident Circumstances and Epidemiology (FACE) Report: Lineman Trainee Electrocuted after Contacting an Energized Pickup Truck in South Carolina, June 18, 1991
1991
10 pages
Report
No indication
English
Public Health & Industrial Medicine , Pathology , Industrial Safety Engineering , Occupational safety and health , Industrial safety , Safety measures , Environmental surveys , Accident investigations , Electrical shock , Industrial training , Electric power transmission lines , Protective equipment , Fatal Accident Circumstances and Epidemiology , EPA region 4