Four utility workers for Salt River Project hiked into the Usery Mountains on Nov. 10 to fix a lightning-damaged power line.

Only three returned.

Though the repair was routine, and the 12-kilovolt line was small by utility standards, one of the workers was electrocuted, highlighting the dangers employees at power companies encounter daily. type=text/javascript>OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')</SCRIPT> src="http://gannett.gcion.com/addyn/3.0/5111.1/133600/0/0/ADTECH;alias=azcentral.com/money/articles_ArticleFlex_1;cookie=info;loc=100;target=_blank;grp=877836;misc=1231647090125" text="text/javascript"></SCRIPT>

The death marked the end of a 23-year run for the utility without any electrical fatalities. It was followed just 22 days later by a similar fatal accident at Arizona Public Service Co., ending a 16-year streak for that company.

"It shakes an organization like ours to its very roots," said William Powell, risk-management and environmental services manager for SRP.

Despite the two electrocutions, accident records indicate that both utilities have steadily become safer places to work, with the number of fatalities and minor accidents declining.

The number of minor strains, cuts or sprains reported at APS and SRP has fallen, along with the more serious injuries reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In 1991, SRP reported an average of 4.86 accidents per 100 workers for the year to OSHA, and APS averaged 3.56. Both utilities anticipate rates below 1.5 for 2008 once the statistics are compiled for OSHA.

Utility officials said that they have re-emphasized safety through the past 30 years. Fatalities occurred annually back then, if not more often. Powell, who started at SRP in 1978, gave an example.

"That year, we had recorded the worst safety record in utilities in the 17 Western states, and there was a resolve to turn things around," he said.

Seven workers died on the job from 1978 to 1985, but SRP finally got the fatalities down to zero, until the recent accident.

Before its recent accident, the last electrocution at APS was in 1992, although since then two employees have died in auto accidents and one in a fall.

"We're in a very, very hazardous business," Powell said.

"We operate under these incredible stresses and power levels. There are 1,000-degree steam temperatures, rotating equipment like turbines and half a million volts in some of our equipment."

Despite the dangers, the fatality rate at U.S. utilities was just 3.9 per 100,000 employees in 2007, according to the Department of Labor. That compared with nearly 25 per 100,000 miners and a rate of 10 per 100,000 for the construction industry.

Equipment has helped improve utility safety.

For example, two years ago, a worker was burned when he opened an electrical cabinet in a neighborhood and debris inside the cabinet caused an electrical arc. Now, SRP employees must wear rubber-insulated gloves when opening cabinets.

"The safe way isn't always the most convenient, comfortable way to get a job done, and it always requires extra thought," Powell said. "When you do make a mistake in our industry, it is unforgiving."

Because the consequences of work can be extreme, officials say they train workers to focus.

"One can't come to work every day and not realize the economy is in the dumps, the stock market is in crisis," said Daniel Froetscher, vice president of energy delivery for APS.

"We all have distractions in life. Do they contribute to accidents? I can't tell you. We challenge our people to perform safely, to set the distractions aside."

One key to safety at APS is "tailboarding" - meetings that workers conduct before starting a job, to ensure everyone recognizes the risks involved.

"We have the goal of zero accidents," Froetscher said. "We want our people to go home every afternoon in the same shape they came here in the morning."

APS utility workers must apply for a four-year apprenticeship program to become journeymen, which includes extensive training at the company's "pole yard" in northwest Phoenix, where they are taught to climb to repair poles and power lines safely.

"They are talented, educated and know their work," he said. "Electrical contacts just do not occur very often."

Routine turned fatal

Richard Clasby, 37, climbed the utility pole that November morning with an apprentice while two SRP co-workers helped from the ground.

SRP officials said the equipment must be repaired often because people shoot the insulators for target practice, especially in desert areas where Clasby was working.

Clasby, a husband and the father of two children, died when he accidentally made contact with the energized line. Not one of its more than 2,000 field workers had been shocked by any of SRP's 40,000 miles of transmission lines last year.

Weeks later, when Miguel Avena, 45, of APS was electrocuted at a switchyard serving the Saguaro Power Plant north of Tucson.

Avena, who left behind a girlfriend, daughter and large extended family, was in a five-person crew performing routine maintenance, which can include testing electrical switches and other energized equipment.

The Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the accidents and hasn't determined if either company violated federal safety standards, director Darin Perkins said.

Vouches for utilities

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union represents the employee groups at both APS and SRP that had fatal accidents.

Representatives said they looked forward to the OSHA reports to see if anything can be learned to prevent repeat accidents.

"We were doing really good until the fatality," said Sam Hoover, president of IBEW Local 387 and a 29-year employee at APS. "I don't think guys are overworked.

"We have a fatigue-management plan. Whether economic times are good, bad or mediocre, we have an obligation to work safe, and we are trained to work safe."

Report details have not come out, but Hoover said he had no reason to believe that APS would be at fault, because the company has a good relationship with the union regarding accident prevention.

"You usually take pride in being a safe place to work, then all of the sudden, you have a fatality," he said. "Nobody wants that on their watch."

Pamela Cornelissens, the business manager for IBEW Local 266, said that 31 years with SRP showed her it had a strong focus on safety as well.

She mentioned initiatives that SRP, like APS, had undertaken. Those included providing fire-retardant shirts for employees before the shirts became an industry standard.

"Over the years, I think Salt River has really followed through with its safety program," she said.

Reach the reporter at ryan .randazzo@arizonarepublic .com or 602-444-4331.