Incident date: 2020-04-06
NAICS industry code: 561730

On April 6, 2020, an employee climbed a 25-foot pine tree to complete routine maintenance trimming on a two-phase powerline. The employee completed the work on the southwest side of the tree, passed through the center, and began to reposition to the northeast side of the tree. While the employee was repositioning, the limb that he had his work positioning lanyard attached to failed and the employee fell approximately 20 feet to the ground, landing on his back near the base of the tree. The employee was hospitalized with a ruptured diaphragm, collapsed lung, multiple lumbar and thoracic fractures, laceration of the spleen, epidural hematoma, right renal contusion, and multiple rib fractures.

Hazard classification:
code_event: title: Other fall to lower level 16 to 20 feet
code_source: title: Trees
code_nature: title: Fractures and other injuries, n.e.c.
code_body: title: Head and trunk
severity: moderate