Electrical Incidents and Occurrences

Annual Summary for 2005

 

 

 

Table 1: - Type of Event per Year:

 

              Fatalities       Criticals          Non-                  Powerline      Electrical        Total

                                                            Criticals            Contacts       Equipment

 

2005               7                             16                             97                            196                            2                        318

2004               7                             21                             84                            151                           1                        264

2003               8                             25                             82                            148                            4                        267

2002               2                             28                             84                            132                            2                        248

2001               9                             34                             86                            120                            5                       254

 

2000               7                             30                             73                            122                            5                        237

1999               8                             34                             83                            115                            2                        242

1998               9                             34                             52                            108                            4                        207

Totals          57                           222                          641                         1092                         25                     2037

 

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:

2005                            0                                              4                                                            2                                               1

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                                 26                                          26                                  5

 

Criticals:

2005                            0                                             13                                                             0                                             3

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                               120                                          62                               28

 

Non-criticals:

2005                             1                                            44                                                            24                                            28

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                15                              314                                          126                              186

 

Grand Totals    27                              460                                          214                              219

 

Thoughts to ponder from Table 2;

 

Of the 57 fatalities recorded over the past eight years, 26 occurred while workers were doing work in close proximity to exposed electrical equipment.  Of these 26 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 920 events resulting in worker injuries or death, 460 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

 

2005                  19            21                     9                  87                                 45                15

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:            114          151                   46                446                               282                 54

 

Commentary:

Unless the event description gave clear information on a specific category, the event would be placed in the Overhead LinesOther 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.

 

 

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 3, 2006