scope:

Description of Driving Event:

A qualified high voltage electrician was injured when he cut into a 34,500 volt cable that was thought to have been de-energized. The cable was located in a cable tunnel in the substation. The primary cause of the accident was the misidentification of the power cable. This was attributed to the fact that two of the cables had their identifying tags interchanged. Because maintenance personnel felt that they had the right cable identified, there was no attempt to determine by sounding devices, spiking, etc. that the cable they were about to cut was energized. The cable had been previously isolated and no further switching was felt to be deemed necessary.