An employee died from injuries sustained while working with equipment that touched an overhead power line. A worker for the same company suffered injuries previously in a similar incident. Now the company faces almost half-a-million dollars in OSHA fines.
On Sept. 17, 2012, a crew employed by Highway Technologies, Inc., of Minneapolis was replacing guard rails on a 13-mile stretch of I-94 in Wisconsin.
Joseph Janisch, 34, was part of the crew. A piece of construction equipment struck an overhead power line. Janisch was found lying on the ground, unresponsive, according to local media reports.
The six instance-by-instance willful violations are for failure to ensure that parts of the equipment being operated weren’t within 10 feet of a power line. These citations include instances of failure to ensure that any part of the machinery wasn’t within six feet of an overhead power line while the machinery was traveling beneath the lines.
The company also faces four serious violations for failure to:
identify electrical work zones
determine if any part of the equipment being operated would be closer than 20 feet of a power line
training each worker on safe clearance distances from power lines, and
evaluate that each employee understood the training and risks of working near overhead power lines.
Before this investigation, Highway Technologies had been inspected by OSHA 10 times since 2007, with citations for nine serious violations.
Atlantic Training’s new training on Arc Flash focuses on what arc flash is, its hazards and how employees can avoid it on the job. View Product
“Electrical Safety Training” training DVD includes real footage from actual electrical sites covering proper tool section and use, grounding, PPE, best safety practices & more. View Product
Convergence’s “Electrical Safety General Awareness” DVD covers electrical hazards, electrical fires, electrical injuries, recognizing & evaluation electrical hazards, PPE, OSHA requirements & more. View Product
