Hispanic painter electrocuted when the ladder he was carrying contacted a 13,200 volt overhead powerline - North Carolina.
Authors
Romano-NT; Higgins-DN
Source
Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 2003-08, 2004 Feb; :1-8
On February 24, 2003, a 32-year-old Hispanic painter (the victim) was electrocuted when the metal ladder he was carrying contacted an overhead powerline. Prior to the incident, the victim and his co-workers had been painting a private residence. As the workers were beginning to clean up the job site at the end of the work day, the victim picked up a metal ladder to carry it to the work van. While the victim was carrying the ladder upright to the van, the foreman and several co-workers verbally warned him about the overhead powerline. Several seconds later, the victim's ladder made contact with the overhead powerline and the victim fell to the ground. The foreman and co-workers ran to assist the victim. After a co-worker made several unsuccessful attempts to call for assistance, the foreman went to a nearby home to call 911. When the foreman returned, he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the victim who had no pulse and was not breathing. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and police personnel responded to the scene. The victim was transported via ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to help prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. eliminate the use of conductive ladders in proximity to energized overhead powerlines; 2. conduct a jobsite survey to identify potential hazards and develop and implement appropriate control measures for these hazards; 3. develop, implement and enforce a comprehensive safety program and training in language(s) and literacy level(s) of workers which includes training in hazard recognition and the avoidance of unsafe conditions; and, 4. ensure that employees are provided with a means for emergency communication and are also trained in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) when worksites are in remote locations. Additionally, ladder manufacturers should consider affixing dual language labels with graphics to provide hazard warnings and instructions for safe use of equipment.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.