Verizon agrees to step up safety training after worker electrocuted
Company reaches settlement with Labor Dept.
Telecommunications giant Verizon has agreed to provide enhanced electrical safety training to its New York field technicians, following the fatal electrocution of a worker in Brooklyn on Sept. 14, 2011.
The field technician died after coming into contact with an energized power line while he worked from an aerial lift bucket. The project was to install steel suspension strand on a joint use pole, which carries both telecommunications and power lines. An inspection by OSHA's Manhattan Area Office found that the field technicians in Brooklyn at Verizon's Avenue H garage were not adequately trained, did not wear rubber protective gloves and did not ground the suspension strand.