# Osha Proposes $88,200 In Fines For Arc Flash Injury



## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

OSHA has cited O'Connell Electric Co. Inc. of Victor, N.Y., for 14 alleged serious violations of safety standards after a company employee was burned in a May 18 electrical arc flash on the North Campus of the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo. The electrical contractor faces a total of $88,200 in proposed fines.

The incident occurred as O'Connell employees were performing maintenance on 34,500 volt electrical switches and transformers in the basement of Baldy Hall. OSHA's inspection found that one of the switches had not first been de-energized, as required, before employees began their work, nor had the switches been properly barricaded and tagged to prevent exposure to live electrical parts.

OSHA also determined that the injured worker and other employees had not been adequately informed about and supplied with adequate personal protective clothing. In addition, they had not been adequately trained in electrical safe work practices and in proper hazardous energy control procedures.

"This is a clear example of the grave consequences that can result when basic electrical safeguards are not provided and used," said Arthur Dube, OSHA's area director in Buffalo. "Electricity can injure and kill almost instantly, which makes it vital that power sources be de-energized and locked out, and workers be properly trained and equipped before electrical work is performed."

OSHA issues serious citations when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which the employer knew or should have known.

"One means of preventing hazardous conditions and the accidents that can result from them is to establish an effective safety and health management system through which employers and employees work together to proactively evaluate, identify and eliminate hazards," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

It's hard to get a clear picture of the case when reading only OSHA's perspective, but it paints the picture of very unqualified people doing work on 35kV gear. 

Hard to believe a run-of-the-mill EC would accept that job without significant MV experience.

The only thing I wonder is if they were "just" switching to isolate for lower-voltage work and that's when the failure occurred?

-John


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## crazymurph (Aug 19, 2009)

I have worked for O'Connell and they are no run of the mill EC. They do a lot of MV and HV work and employ both electricians and linemen. They have a huge amount of equipment and anything you need is a phone call away. I would put most of the blame on the supervision that are in the Buffalo area. I will call my buddy, a lineman, who works mostly for O'Connell and continue on with this post. O'Connell did the wiring for the 1980 Winter Olympics and more recently have been doing several wind farms across New York state.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

I have done many jobs at a campus, in a basement, on switches just like this so I can imagine how this went. These switches are usually fed as part of a complex loop network of 35kV cables that go all over the campus, different buildings are daisy chained off one cable feeding many switches that each feed one half of a secondary selective MV/LV sub in the building. A main MV on campus has several breakers, each one feeding one of these cables. 

Looking at the one line for LOTO can be confusing, but usually the whole crew has a meeting, does a group LOTO , then splits up to each building to start doing the sub work. Couple guys go to work on the 2 35kV switches, few guys start on the transformer, few guys start on the LV switchgear. 

Either they locked the wrong switch from confusion, or the one line was wrong, but still ALWAYS have to do a live-dead-live check before you start work. Maybe the guy forgot, maybe he did and his meter was dead and he did not verify on a know live source. But I bet the story that comes out is pretty close in line to the story I just made up.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

Big John said:


> Hard to believe a run-of-the-mill EC would accept that job without significant MV experience.


You don't read posts here much:whistling2: How many times do we see posts that start like this "I don't do much high voltage work but was asked to bid........"


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

Zog said:


> You don't read posts here much:whistling2: How many times do we see posts that start like this "I don't do much high voltage work but was asked to bid........"


 Call me naive but I would think most people's sense of self-preservation would keep them from jumping into this without a very clear understanding of what they were doing.

So these are usually double-ended pieces of gear, and they simply misunderstood which side was closed, and then screwed up their voltage detection?

I guess I am naive because it always amazes me how people can make amateur-hour mistakes like that.

-John


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## jmsmith (Sep 10, 2011)

Big John said:


> Call me naive but I would think most people's sense of self-preservation would keep them from jumping into this without a very clear understanding of what they were doing.
> 
> So these are usually double-ended pieces of gear, and they simply misunderstood which side was closed, and then screwed up their voltage detection?
> 
> ...


Sad thing is, John, is the case of those getting involved with this kind of work because that big $$$ sign takes the place of that sense of self-preservation, or plain- old common sense for that matter.... There are a lot of contractors out there that are capable of doing the work, but are either cutting corners, or just plain not paying attention to the work at hand...


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