Incident date: 2023-12-12
NAICS industry code: 236116

A crew was working near an electrical pole. A co-worker was using a front-loader to grade a slope when the loader slid into a guy-wire and became tangled and stuck. The injured employee used a handheld grinder to cut the wire a few feet from the ground. The lower part of the wire fell to the ground, but the upper part of the wire fell toward the pole and contacted an energized part before the end landed in nearby bushes. The employee attempted to shake the bush to free the wire so it could fall back toward the pole. The wire popped up and contacted his hands, resulting in electrical entry burns to both hands and exit burns on both feet.

Hazard classification:
code_event: title: Indirect exposure to electricity, greater than 220 volts
code_source: title: Wire, cables-nonelectrical
code_nature: title: Electrical burns, unspecified
code_body: title: Upper and lower limb(s)
severity: moderate