Richland Operations Office
Employee Burned while Changing Personal Vehicle Headlamp

Date: January 9, 2001

Identifier: 2001-RL-HNF-0002

Lessons Learned Statement:
Changes in routine practices and failure to properly identify hazards caused by those changes can lead to personal injury at home as well as at work.

Integrated Safety Management Principles can enhance safety at home when applied appropriately. In this case, better hazard analysis might have prevented this injury.

Discussion of Activities:
SUMMARY: While changing a headlight in a personal van, an employee's wristwatch shorted the positive battery post to ground. The high fault current caused a third degree burn on his wrist.

DETAILS: An employee purchased a replacement for a headlight in his van from the reference catalog in a store. Before beginning the repair job at home, he removed his watch and ring, as was his routine for working around the house. After removing the burned out headlight, he realized the replacement was not the correct one. He retrieved his wallet, checkbook, keys, watch, and ring for the trip back to the store.

After exchanging the headlight for the correct one, he returned home to finish the job. Because the repair wasn't expected to take long, he deviated from his routine safety precaution of removing his watch and ring. He did not assess the hazards that might be associated with this minor change in his routine practice. When he reached inside the engine compartment to re-connect the electrical plug on the headlamp, one side of his watch contacted the positive terminal of the battery and the other side grounded against the chassis. The high current through the watchband heated the metal watchband very quickly. The employee quickly pulled his arm from the engine compartment and removed the watch but he still received 3rd degree burns to approximately 2 cm² of his wrist as shown below.

Analysis:
A seemingly minor repair became a painful experience when a normal safety precaution was overlooked for expediency.

Even though automobile batteries generate only 12 volts across the terminals, they can release a tremendous amount of energy in a very short amount of time when the terminals are shorted together. A typical automobile battery contains enough energy to raise the car 1000 feet into the air. Jewelry and other conductive apparel should be removed whenever working near batteries and engine starter circuits in cars, boats, and recreational vehicles.

Recommended actions:
When changing your normal routine, it is important to thoroughly reassess hazards associated with a job, especially any that might be introduced by the changes.

Estimated Savings/Cost Avoidance: N/A

Priority Descriptor: BLUE/Information

Work / Function: Maintenance - Vehicle

Hanford Functional Category: N/A

Hazard: Personal Injury /Exposure - Temperature Extremes

ISM Core Function: Analyze Hazards

Originator: Fluor Hanford, Inc. Submitted by Mark Eby.

Contact: Project Hanford Lessons Learned Coordinator; (509) 373-7664; FAX 376-6112; e-mail: PHMC_Lessons_Learned@rl.gov

Authorized Derivative Classifier: Not required

Reviewing Official: John Bickford

Keywords: battery, burn, watchband, headlight

References: None