STEELE-WASECA COOPERATIVE

Employee later dies in fall with utility pole

On September 6, 1990, Employee #1, who was a line foreman, and an apprentice lin eman went out to a rural residence to repair a security light on a free-standing wooden utility pole. The pole was 35 feet long and had been there for approxima tely 46 years. The necessary equipment, such as a bulb, photo cell, hand line, a nd climbers, was obtained. The wooden pole was sound tested with a hammer by Emp loyee #1; it was pounded at the base and farther up the pole. He put on his clim bing belt and climbed up the pole to about 5 feet from the top. The photo cell w as tested and the light came on, but was very dim. He told the apprentice that t he photo cell and bulb would have to be changed. This was a common procedure. Th e apprentice started to walk toward the truck to throw away the boxes that had c ontained the photo cell and bulb when he heard a big crack and turned around. He looked up and could see that the pole had tilted considerably. Employee #1, at the top, was shifting his way around the pole when it snapped and fell through a split rail fence. Employee #1 was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, wh ere he died on September 18, 1990, from injury complications to the lungs and ki dneys. The employer has established and written a specific procedure for testing free-standing poles.