Electrical Incidents and Occurrences in Canada

Annual Summary for 2006

 

 

 

Table 1: - Type of Event per Year:

 

              Fatalities       Criticals          Non-                  Powerline      Electrical        Total

                                                            Criticals            Contacts       Equipment

 

2006               8                             18                           112                            201                            1                        340

 

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

 

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;

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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:

2006                           0                                              1                                                            5                                               2

 

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                                 27                                          31                                  7

 

Criticals:

2006                            1                                             11                                                             2                                             4

 

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               13                               131                                          64                               32

 

Non-criticals:

2006                             2                                            61                                                            13                                            36

 

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                17                              375                                          139                              222

 

Grand Totals    30                              533                                           234                              261

 

Thoughts to ponder from Table 2;

 

Of the 65 fatalities recorded over the past nine years, 31 occurred while workers were doing work in close proximity to exposed electrical equipment.  Of these 31 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.

 

2006 was a particularly bad year for fatalities involving dump trucks.  Historically, during the years 1998 to 2005, there were only 2 deaths involving dump trucks and overhead lines.  In just the year 2006, there were three deaths, two involving workers on the ground, one was the driver trying to leave the vehicle.

 

In looking at the total of 1058 events resulting in worker injuries or death, 533 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

 

2006                              16                23                             9                                89                                           55                9

 

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       

 

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.

 

 

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:        January 26, 2007