Inspection Detail

Inspection: 315237974 - Commonwealth Edison Company

Inspection Information - Office: Naperville Area Office

Investigation Summary

Two electric utility crews were relocating utility poles supporting one 34-kilovolt and two 12-kilovolt overhead power lines. The employees set one new pole and began transferring the 34-kilovolt line conductors to it. With the top of the existing pole supported by a boom jib, a power line worker in an aerial lift approximately 12.8 meters above the ground cut the existing pole with a chainsaw. The load attached to the jib included a 1.7-meter-long section of pole, a crossarm, and three 34-kilovolt phase conductors supported from the crossarm by insulators. As the boom operator lowered the existing pole section, the load, which was unbalanced, shifted and landed against the power line worker. He used a chainsaw to make a lower relief cut and start an upper cut on a section of the crossarm to release it and balance the load. At that moment, an employee on the second crew, which was working on a pole on the other side of the street, crossed the street and walked by the rear of the aerial lift truck. Members of the first crew shouted a warning, and the employee stopped and looked up. The cut portion of the crossarm fell and struck the employee in the head. Coworkers administered first aid treatment until emergency medical services arrived. The employee was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head on arrival at a nearby trauma center. He had been wearing head protection.

Keywords: HEAD, CROSSARM, ELEC UTILITY WORK, STRUCK BY, FALLING OBJECT, UTILITY POLE, UNGUARDED