Overhead Power Line Safety
29 CFR 1926.1408 · 29 CFR 1926.416 · This talk in Spanish
Why it matters
Power lines do not look dangerous. They look like every other wire until a ladder, a boom, or long stock gets too close. Electricity can arc across a gap without touching anything, which is why OSHA sets minimum clearance distances. Today we cover the distances and how to keep everything outside them.
Hazards
- ⚠ Ladders, especially metal, raised into or near lines
- ⚠ Boom trucks, cranes, and lifts encroaching the clearance zone
- ⚠ Long conductive material carried upright: pipe, gutter, rebar
- ⚠ Service drops to houses treated as harmless
- ⚠ Arc flash reaching workers before any contact is made
Controls and safe practices
- ✓ Keep everything at least 10 feet from lines up to 50kV, more above; for cranes, follow the Table A clearances in 1926.1408.
- ✓ Survey the sky before raising anything: ladders, booms, dump beds, long stock.
- ✓ Carry ladders and long material horizontally, and lower them well before line areas.
- ✓ Treat every line as energized, including house service drops and cable/phone lines wrapped around them.
- ✓ If equipment contacts a line: stay on the machine, warn others away, and jump clear with feet together only if fire forces you off.
- ✓ Request utility line covers or de-energizing when work must happen inside clearances.
What the OSHA standard says
Exact words from the official text, with a link to each paragraph.
“Determine if any part of the equipment, load line or load (including rigging and lifting accessories), if operated up to the equipment's maximum working radius in the work zone, could get closer than 20 feet to a power line.”
“Conduct a planning meeting with the operator and the other workers who will be in the area of the equipment or load to review the location of the power line(s), and the steps that will be implemented to prevent encroachment/electrocution.”
“The employer must assume that all power lines are energized unless the utility owner/operator confirms that the power line has been and continues to be deenergized and visibly grounded at the worksite.”
“Before work is begun the employer shall ascertain by inquiry or direct observation, or by instruments, whether any part of an energized electric power circuit, exposed or concealed, is so located that the performance of the work may bring any person, tool, or machine into physical or electrical contact with the electric power circuit.”
By the numbers
- BLS counted 130 work deaths from exposure to electricity across all U.S. jobs in 2024. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2024, Table 2 (released February 19, 2026))
Site check before the talk
Walk the site and tick each line. Each line comes from the text quoted above.
- ☐Before setup, check if any part of the crane or load could get within 20 feet of a line. (29 CFR 1926.1408(a)(2))
- ☐Hold a planning meeting with the operator and crew about where the lines are. (29 CFR 1926.1408(b)(1))
- ☐Treat every power line as live unless the utility confirms it is deenergized and grounded. (29 CFR 1926.1408(e))
- ☐Before work starts, find out where live circuits are, exposed or hidden. (29 CFR 1926.416(a)(3))
Quotes checked word for word against the official eCFR text on October 5, 2026. This is a summary for a crew talk, not legal advice; the full official text governs. How we check
Crew discussion questions
- Where are the lines relative to today’s ladder and lift positions?
- What long material moves today, and along what route?
- Does everyone know the stay-on-the-machine rule for contact?
- Do we need line covers ordered from the utility for this job?
Applicable OSHA standards
29 CFR 1926.1408, 29 CFR 1926.416
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