Incident date: 2024-12-11
NAICS industry code: 518210

Employees were inspecting a broken telephone pole to remove it and attached the cable from the roadway. They removed the broken pole from the cable/strand so they could raise the cable/strand up and attach to a tree to gain clearance until it could be repaired. The injured employee cut the top (above the cable/strand) of the pole off and it fell to the ground in the roadway. They then moved that piece out of the roadway. This left a 6-foot piece still attached to the strand (below the strand) at about a 45-degree angle to the ground. When the remaining 6-foot piece was cut from the cable/strand, it broke and swung toward the injured employee, knocking him to the ground. The employee sustained a fractured skull and a fractured L5 vertebra.

Hazard classification:
code_event: title: Struck by dislodged or detached object(s)
code_source: title: Utility poles
code_nature: title: Fractures
code_body: title: Head and trunk
severity: moderate