Annual Summary for 2004
Table 1: - Number
of Events by Quarter per Year:
Category 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter Total
Fatals:
2004 1 3 3 0 7
2003 0 3 5 0 8
2002 0 1 1 0 2
2001 1 1 2 5 9
2000 1 2 2 2 7
1999 1 2 3 2 8
1998 1 2 5 1 9
Criticals:
2004 6 4 5 6 21
2003 5 7 6 7 25
2002 5 9
10 4 28
2001 7 13 5 9 34
2000 12 5 5 8 30
1999 7 9
11 7 34
1998 9 4
13 8
34
Total –
Criticals: 51 51
55 49 206
Non-criticals:
2004 25
16 24 19 84
2003 14
25 24 19 82
2002 18
17 34 15 84
2001 21
12 25 28 86
2000 10
22 26 15 73
1999 16
22 24 21 83
1998 7
17 13 15 52
Total – Non-criticals: 111 131 170 132 544
Power line contacts:
2004 19 48 56 28 151
2003 22 39 50 37 148
2002 8 28 59 37 132
2001 11 32 44
33 120
2000 16 34 42 30 122
1999 13 32 40 30 115
1998 9 30 40 29 108
Electrical Equipment:
2004 0
0 1
0 1
2003 0
0 4
0 4
2002 0
1 0
1 2
2001 1
2 1
1 5
2000 3
1 0
1
5
1999 1
0 0
1 2
1998 0
0 2
2 4
Total – Equipment: 5
4 8
6 23
Total Events:
2004 51 71 89 53 264
2003 41 74 89 63 267
2002 31 56 104 57 248
2001 41 60 77 76 254
2000 42 64 75 56 237
1999 38
65 78 61 242
1998 26 53 73 55 207
Grand Total: 270 443 585
421 1 719
Commentary for Table 1 (above)
In the above table, if a person (not necessarily a worker) was injured during the event, it would be counted as a fatal, critical, or non-critical depending on the nature of the injury. Events are placed in the category of occurrences for power line contacts or electrical equipment only if a person was not injured.
Commentary for Table 2 (following):
The headings are defined as follows;
- Meters, if the direct cause of the event involved the malfunction of a meter, the event would be counted here. It would be considered as a malfunction of the meter even if the cause were the worker using it on the wrong function or scale.
- Equipment being worked on while still live, if the worker was working directly on the piece of electrical equipment. If a worker caused the fault with his test leads, the accident would be placed here, and not in the Meters column, as the meter itself did not cause the event.
- Close proximity to live equipment, if the worker did not intend to do anything with the electrical equipment, but inadvertently made contact. Roofing and siding workers losing control of their metal ladders would be placed here.
- Faulty equipment, if the worker was using the equipment properly, but it had a fault, which caused the event. Faulty power drills would go here.
Table 2 - Detailed Summary of Injury Events by Specified Cause:
Category Meters Equipment being worked Close proximity Faulty
on while still live to live equipment equipment
Fatals:
2004 0 5
2 0
2003 0 3 4 1
2002 0 2 0 0
2001 0 4 4 1
2000 0 3 3 1
1999 0 1 7 0
1998 0 4
4 1
Totals 0 22 24 4
Criticals:
2004 2 7 8 4
2003 2 11 8 4
2002 0 17 9 2
2001 3 14 9 8
2000 0 20 6 4
1999 1 19
12 2
1998 4 19
10 1
Totals 12 107 62 25
Non-criticals:
2004 2 43 17 22
2003 0 44 14 24
2002 4 38 16 26
2001 4 43 12 27
2000 1 35 17 20
1999 1 40 15 27
1998 2 27 11 12
Totals 14 270 102 158
Overall:
2004 4 55
27
26
2003 2 58
26
29
2002 4 57
25
28
2001 7 61
25
36
2000 1 58
26
25
1999 2 60
34
29
1998 6 50
25 14
Thoughts to ponder from Table 2;
Of the 50 fatalities recorded over the past seven years, 24 occurred while workers were doing work in close proximity to exposed electrical equipment. Of these 24 deaths, 9 occurred as workers lost control of aluminum ladders while moving them or placing them in position. The ladder contacted one or more phases of an overhead line, and as the electrical current flowed through the ladder to ground, some also went through the worker holding the ladder. With only about 100 milliamperes required to cause ventricular fibrillation in the human body, not much of the available fault current would have to go through the worker to cause death.
In looking at the total of 800 events resulting in worker injuries or death, 399 of them involved workers doing work directly on electrical equipment while it was still energized. While the Construction, Industrial and Mining Programs all allow work to be done on or near to exposed electrical equipment while it is still energized, it is only for limited circumstances in which the work is not practical to be done any other way. Trouble-shooting using a meter or voltage tester would be an example of this. In all other circumstances, the power must be turned off before the work is started, and while the work is being done on or near to the electrical equipment.
Table 3 - Detailed Summary of Power Line Contacts:
Overhead Lines Buried Cables
Crane Dumptruck Tree felling Other Digging Other
2004 11 16 5 57 53 9
2003 16 19 9 63 35 6
2002 16 20 4 50 36 6
2001 16 22 5 43 27 7
2000 15 10 3 59 32 3
1999 11 26 2 48 27 1
1998 10 17 8 39 27 7
Totals: 95 130 36 359 237 39
Commentary:
Unless the event description gave clear information on a specific category, the event would be placed in the Overhead Lines – Other category. With the brief descriptions that are many times phoned into the Ministry of Labour offices, this category collects many of the events by default.
Please note the marked increase in incidents involving buried cables, from about 40 events in the other years to 60 events in 2004. This may be accounted for by the increased use of buried cables instead of overhead lines in new construction, or also by the decreased room for services found on many new building lots.
Produced by: Mike Reiser, P. Eng.,
Engineer,
PSS-Kitchener District
Phone: (519) 883-5682
FAX: (519)
883-5694
E-Mail: mike.reiser@mol.gov.on.ca
Date of issue: February 2, 2005