LOTO?

Ya do yer own lockout/tagout duties, or get a Darwin award. This is just a fact of life, or death, you choose which.

Not enough information in the article.

What workers "thought the power was off"? Was it the victim? It was clearly stated that the fixtures that he was working on were not powered ("had thrown the circuit breakers"). Although, I don't know why they call that an "extra precaution", it should be SOP.

They also note that he fell from a platform. There's no information on why he fell, why there were live wires under the platform, what the platform was (scaffolding, permanent or what). They could certainly have reported more about the incident. As is, the article is not much more than an obituary.

Sounds like a classic example of poor electrical system documentation such as circuit breakers improperly labeled, incorrectly labeled wiring, and more than likely the electrical drawings (if any exist) were/are not up to date.

Also it could be that the poor soul interrupted a shared neutral in a lighting circuit or there was an alternate circuit feed and/or crossed wiring.

Who knows what the real cause of the accident was/is? The only person that for certain might know apparently is deceased which leaves the root-cause of the accident to be defined by guesswork of humans some of which do not have a clue what to look for.

Not long ago I read a report on the root-cause of accidents in the work place and was not surprised to find that seven out of ten accidents are not the victim's fault.

Instead the root-cause of most accidents today is due to the actions or lack of action by other employees including supervision and management.

Without up to date drawings, correct wiring labeling, and correct circuit breaker labeling every LOTO is a "crapshoot".

I worked in a large generation station a few years back where equipment was not labeled. Management's response was: "If you are not smart enough to figure out what a piece of equipment is and where it is fed from, we don't want you here."

They did not have a good safety record and have suffered too many fatalities and near-fatality accidents.

I did see where that particular generation station not long ago was fine $140 million for negligence by OSHA and the EPA so maybe it will get their attention.

Read that site listed and several others on the same accident and must agree with Lo Volt (post #2). Not enough information to assume what happened.

I had to investigate a similar accident by a member of the maintenance staff, who fortunately survived. Everyone thought he was shocked by 277VAC, until after a study of his vitals and testing at the hospital, it was determined he had a seizure and fell from a ladder while working on bay lighting. Yes he had head trauma and many cuts and scrapes, but they could find no indication of electrical shock on him. He too, had his fixture power locked out, but managed to grab onto, or at least break through, thin wall metal conduit, run at a lower level, containing live power wiring to other equipment, tearing it apart and shorting wires thus creating a flash.

Not saying that happened in this case, but we need to wait until all the facts are in to see what happened.

Actually another case of poor incomplete reporting. I traced back through all the news articles I could find and the only thing consistent within them was their lack of consistency. We may get a better idea after OSHA issues its reports, and that assumes that someone knowledgeable about electricity is part of their team.

Right now there's not enough information to determine if it was the electrician, electricity, or some other external event that initiated the accident; and "guessing" has no place in any forensic investigation.

For being so small, those electrons pack a wallop!

Well, there's a lot of 'em.

Firearms, chainsaws and electricity are not to be trusted, ever.

Yes, but a chainsaw rarely starts up and kills someone! Unless it's being operated by this guy?

Seems as though the guy fell off of a platform and grabbed electrical cables as he fell. All of HIS equipment may have been properly locked off and tagged out, but he grabbed something ELSE. That points back to the issue raised of him being on a working platform in a POSITION to fall, and HAVING to grab for something. So I agree, why was he not tied off and protected FROM falling off of the platform?

This is a FALL accident that HAPPENED to end up involving electricity, not an ELECTRICAL accident.

He must have contacted two wires or one and a ground. Probably.

There is a Shopping Center here in Oz that was a continual building site. No sooner did they finish one extension then they'd begin another. Of course there wasn't a continuity of contractors. The net result was that there was a problem in identifying the distribution boards.

During another refurbishment the instruction was made to switch off a certain circuit breaker on DB1 so that wires could be cut, the all clear was given, then bang! Turns out there were 2 DB1's on the same floor, the one that was originally installed 14 years prior and one that was installed 2 years prior...

Took them another 6 months to remap the entire building afterwards, and nobody took anything for granted...

Simple as this!

While in some cases the small glow indicators will help to identify the presence of AC voltage they do not work on DC circuits.

They also do not provide any sort of accurate voltage level indication and will light due to extremely low inductance voltage.

It is not a good idea to ever trust or use this type of tester as the sole means to determine voltage.

Instead; all of the conductors must be tested with a high quality DVM wire-to-wire and wire-to-ground for both AC and DC voltage before any contact is made.

Local shorting and grounding to create a safe, equipotential work zone must be created that encompasses all personnel working in, on, and around the area.

Otherwise there is a potential for a switch, breaker, or other failed/faulted system component to allow voltage to be present and/or the possibility of someone inadvertently energizing the circuit(s) during a troubleshooting procedure.

In this case the circuit(s) being worked on may well have been properly isolated but the wire(s) the person grabbed onto during his fall obviously were not.

More than likely he grabbed onto an adjacent energized lighting fixture whip which in no way could hold the force of a falling person and therefore it was pulled out of the fixture which removed the wire nuts exposing the hot wires.

As to fall protection; Not all companies require fall harnesses and/or tie-off when working off scaffolding rather it depends on the type and height of the scaffold.

(THOSE TESTERS ARE FOR BASIC ELECTRICAL PRESENCE TESTING ONLY)

That is why I said to at least use one. It may give you a false positive of live electrical but that would make me question if the electrical was truly off or was there a secondary circuit running through the conduit I was working on.

Then I would have investigated the LOTO and made sure the electrical was truly off and safe!

I never use one of those to test electrical, I only use it to test for the basic presence of live electrical. I then grab my Fluke meter and test the actual circuit!

If the electrician had used the one that was probably tucked inside his tool belt, he may have had a nasty fall and time in the ER for broken bones.

He didn't get that chance!

From how I read the article, there were numerous failures in the safety measures not applied to his work.

1. No fall protection!
2. No basic electrical testing!
3. No LOTO by the said electrician!

Those are just 3 items. Had even one of those been properly performed, we wouldn't be having this conversation!

If this was 'Industrial Lighting,' as it would be for a commercial building or rehabbed warehouse, it would have been standard US 110/120VAC, so the 'death stick' would have shown power inside the box if it had been used.

"As to fall protection; Not all companies require fall harnesses and/or tie-off when working off scaffolding rather it depends on the type and height of the scaffold."

If it was 36" or higher, fall protection is required per OSHA regulations. I'm not going to dig through the book for chapter and verse this morning, there's too much on my plate for me to spend time doing OSHA research for outside agencies.

It is always especially terrible when someone loses his life due to human error.

My condolences go out to his family and loved ones.

As a licensed electrician he was aware of the proper LOTO procedures,and probably was following the rules.

The fall is probably the final cause of death but it may have been precipitated by any number of other factors:

A static discharge,causing an involuntary muscle spasm,a slippery platform,an insecure platform,multiple circuits feeding through the fixture,no guard rails on platform, an ad-hoc platform,such as a pallet on forklift forks,or numerous other reasons.

The prime reason for the severity of the injury was failure to secure safely when working at height.

The company is required to discuss hazards and the safety requirements in detail before every job,and a sign off sheet is required to acknowledge the discussion.

These discussions can sometimes become very boring,but they are necessary.

Familiarity breeds complacency.Complacency breeds accidents.

"I've done this a hundred times..." are familiar last words.

A fatality will mean a thorough investigation by OSHA,and they will have access to more info than we have seen here.

I have seen fatality incidents white-washed by big corporations,and they will do everything in their power to put the blame on the employee.

But I hope that is not the case here.

Jeez! I carry a tester in my bag and I use it even though I'm the guy who flipped the breaker! I've seen many mislabeled breakers and I don't trust em.

I learned my lesson hooking up a socket for a microwave. Lady who owned the house had wired the range hood I was replacing to one leg of a 50A 220 for the range. Tapped my needlenose pliers to the metal outlet box and BANG! I can't see and there is a new hole in the end of my pliers. I test everything now.

Testers may be hard to use when you are falling through the air.

Very true.

That's why you test BEFORE you stick anything near the circuit.

Oh wait, that was Lyn. Sorry, I missed the satiric tone of voice, must be running on low caffine this morning. Stupid donut shop must have slipped me unleaded when I stopped in.