Accident: 126008903 - Arm And Ribs Broken By High Pressure Water Blast

At 7:00 a.m. on June 3, 1999, Employee #1 was in an approximately 14 ft deep excavation, replacing a coupling on an 8 in. water line. As he was working, an adjacent 16 in. water line failed and a blast of water struck Employee #1 in the chest and on the left side of his body. He suffered a fractured left arm, four fractured ribs, and a lacerated spleen and kidney. Employee #1 was taken to Kaiser Hospital in San Diego for treatment. According to the foreman, the cause of the accident was the apparent failure of the 16 in. water line at a point where it had previously been repaired.

construction, high pressure, water pipe, maintenance, struck by, equipment failure, fracture, rib, excavation, kidney

Accident: 170628713 - Fall - Failure Of Utility Pole

A power line worker was installing a conductor on the crossarm of an 11-meter-tall utility pole. He was strapped onto the pole and was adjusting the conductor to get the required sag on the conductor. The pole broke, and the employee rode it down. He sustained injuries to his wrists, liver, and kidney and was hospitalized for his injuries.

fall, power line worker, utility pole, equipment failure, wrist, kidney, liver, elec utility work, overhead power line

Accident: 200780070 - Struck By Moving Object

Two employees were operating a Greenlee lumber planer. One of the employees stopped feeding material into the planer, came around the machine holding his side, and fell to the floor. He died. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be a blunt force injury of the employee's trunk.

planing machine, kidney, struck by

Accident: 201520020 - Electric Shock - Contact With Overhead Line Thru Boom

Some employees were loading a hydraulic excavator onto a construction trailer. The excavator operator was driving it onto the trailer, which was positioned under an overhead power line. As the operator rotated the excavator toward the rear, another employee lifted the metal ramps at the rear of the trailer. The arm of the excavator contacted the 13.2-kilovolt (phase to phase) power line, causing the employee handling the metal ramps to receive an electric shock. The injured employee also sustained electrical burns on his hand and on each foot just behind the small toes. He was hospitalized for 2 days because of kidney difficulties caused by the electric shock. (The operator of the excavator was not injured.)

electrical, electric shock, burn, kidney, overhead power line, excavator, boom, trailer, e gi ia