jes,
OSHA 1910.334(b)(2) requires:
“Reclosing circuits after protective device operation. After a circuit is deenergized by a circuit protective device, the circuit may not be manually reenergized until it has been determined that the equipment and circuit can be safely energized. The repetitive manual reclosing of circuit breakers or reenergizing circuit through replaced fuses is prohibited.
Note: When it can be determined from the design of the circuit and the overcurrent devices involved that the automatic operation of a device was caused by an overload rather than a fault condition, no examination of the circuit or connected equipment is needed before the circuit is reenergized.”
Thus, the only time you can resett a circuit breaker without inspecting the cause is if it is a known overload. Also, when resetting a circuit breaker, I agree with Ed's comments as a typical practice.
