Fractures

Employees were inspecting a broken telephone pole to remove it and attached the cable from the roadway. They removed the broken pole from the cable/strand so they could raise the cable/strand up and attach to a tree to gain clearance until it could be repaired. The injured employee cut the top (above the cable/strand) of the pole off and it fell to the ground in the roadway. They then moved that piece out of the roadway. This left a 6-foot piece still attached to the strand (below the strand) at about a 45-degree angle to the ground. When the remaining 6-foot piece was cut from the cable/strand, it broke and swung toward the injured employee, knocking him to the ground. The employee sustained a fractured skull and a fractured L5 vertebra.