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ElectricityBring the worker down to a safe place
Once the worker is free, the rescuer brings them down from the pole to a safe location where first aid and CPR can be given. OSHA checks that the crew has the equipment and procedures to reach and move an injured worker who is on a pole or otherwise difficult to rescue, and that the rescuers have shown they can use them.
Free to startScenarios
- The injured worker at the top of a wood pole.
- Live-line bare-hand work: a bucket truck with lower controls brings the injured worker down.
- An underground manhole or vault: rescue equipment such as a tripod with a retrieval line.
The steps
- Use the company's equipment and procedures for reaching the injured worker.
- Stay on your fall protection while you are more than 4 feet above the ground.
- Bring the worker down with the rescue procedure your company trained you in.
- Move the worker to a safe location where first aid and CPR can be given.
- Place the worker in a position where CPR and first aid can begin as soon as possible.
- In a manhole or vault, use the rescue equipment, such as a tripod with a retrieval line.
To pass
- The crew has the equipment and procedures to reach and move an injured worker who is on a pole or otherwise difficult to rescue.
- The rescuers have been trained and have shown proficiency with that equipment and those procedures.
- No single rescue method is set by law: each company develops its own techniques.
Official source
Federal · OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.269
Interpretation of the electric power standard (June 4, 1996)
OSHA publishes free its June 4, 1996 interpretation of 1910.269: first aid, CPR within 4 minutes and rescue from the pole in the field.
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