A federal workplace safety investigation found that an employee worked on a deenergized circuit without a lock, tag, or effective isolation from hazardous electrical energy at the site where apprentice electrician Justin Davis died on a scaffold in Bay St. Louis on May 12. The finding concerns electrical safety at the worksite, while the official narrative of what happened to him has shifted more than once. Davis’s family has long believed he was electrocuted.
Calgon Carbon Corporation operated the worksite where Davis died, and the company confirmed his identity after the incident, according to the Mississippi Independent. Hancock County Coroner Jeff Hair and Sheriff Johnny Alison also identified Davis as the worker who died, but their account of how he died has changed. Hair and Alison initially said Davis fell about 20 feet from scaffolding, striking additional scaffolding without reaching the ground. Alison later corrected that account, saying Davis had not fallen at all and was instead found slumped over on the scaffolding he had been working on, a version he gave to the Sun Herald, telling the paper, “Apparently, he just slumped over on the scaffolding he was on.”
Family Attorney Says Fixture Was Still Energized
Davis’s family attorney, Chip Herrington, has offered a third version, saying another electrician who checked the fixture Davis had been working on found it was still energized even though the breaker had been turned off. Herrington also said scene witnesses believed Davis had been electrocuted. Those accounts have not been independently confirmed in the evidence reviewed for this story, and the Sun Herald reported that an autopsy was pending to determine Davis’s cause of death.
The OSHA investigation into the May 12 incident at Port Bienville Industrial Park found that an employee worked on a deenergized circuit without a lock, tag, or effective isolation from hazardous electrical energy, according to the OSHA report cited by the Mississippi Independent. Federal workplace-safety rules require that circuits and equipment to be worked on be disconnected from all electric energy sources, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s own standard. OSHA investigators assigned the violation a gravity rating of 10, the highest on the agency’s gravity-based penalty scale, reflecting high hazard severity and a greater probability of occurrence, including potential death or extremely serious injury or illness.
Doleac Electric Fined, Calgon Cleared
OSHA found Doleac Electrical Company, Davis’s employer, liable for violations leading to his death. The agency initially fined Doleac $11,585, classified the violation as serious on July 28, and the company contested the citation in mid-August. As part of a formal settlement, OSHA later reclassified the violation as other rather than serious. OSHA’s maximum penalty for a serious violation is $16,550, while penalties for willful or repeated violations can exceed $165,000. Doleac did not respond to questions about the findings or its citation challenge, the Mississippi Independent reported…