Electricity and tree work: what OSHA's leaflet and HSE's case study cover

This page reports what the named codes, regulators and makers say. It is not training and does not teach the work. This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes what two regulators' short safety publications on electricity and tree work cover, and links to them. It does not replace them or add a talk of its own. The distances and licences are in the guide to working near power lines. All pages were read on October 9, 2026. The courses that teach the work are in the guides on chainsaw tickets and certifications by country. HSE text is adapted under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

OSHA: Electricity and Tree Care Work

OSHA publication 3861, Electricity and Tree Care Work: A Deadly Combination, is a leaflet dated 2016. It says contact with electricity is one of the leading causes of death for tree care workers, and that it is written for small business owners and front-line supervisors doing regular tree trimming, not line-clearance tree trimming. It opens with three short accounts of electrocutions drawn from state fatality investigation reports: a pole saw touching an overhead line from a portable work platform, a cut branch that did not fully detach and struck a line, and a felled tree that landed on a line. It says the last employer had no written safety and health policy. This page gives no more detail of those events.

The leaflet then lists four groups of points under headings:

Be prepared. Train workers about hazards in a language they understand, survey the area for hazards before work begins, have an emergency plan, remember that electricity can travel through the ground, and consider asking the utility company to de-energize nearby lines.
Follow safe work practices. A distance of at least 10 feet from overhead lines, and more than 10 feet if the voltage to ground is over 50 kV under 29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)(i), with no direct contact with a conductor and no indirect contact through a limb or tool. The leaflet says workers should not rely solely on protective clothing against electrical hazards.
Provide the right gear. Employers provide proper gloves and shoes for the hazards present, and when electrical hazards are present, rope free of moisture and contaminants that gives appropriate insulation, and fall protection for climbers.
Be alert. Assume all lines are energized at all times and anticipate when limbs might fall onto power sources.

The leaflet adds that employers hired to clear trees from power lines must follow applicable OSHA requirements such as 29 CFR 1910.268, 1910.269 and Subpart S of Part 1910. OSHA's one-page sheet Solutions for Tree Care Hazards has a power lines column that is described in the guide to OSHA's one-page tree care sheet.

HSE: the power lines page and a case study

The HSE page on working near power lines and cables says contact with overhead lines causes fatal or severe electric shock and burn injuries, and that striking underground cables often leads to burn injuries from the resulting explosion. It says that for work within 10 metres of overhead lines, measured at ground level horizontally from below the nearest wire, or work with the potential to breach that distance, advice comes from the owner of the line, usually the network operator. It says the first choice is to work dead, with the power turned off, and that any live work must be justified, documented and meet Regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations.

The HSE tree work case studies page carries a case on a lorry-mounted timber crane whose boom touched an overhead line on a forest track. Its advice, as HSE sets it out, is that work is planned to minimise the need for vehicles to pass close to or beneath lines, that the route of the lines is mapped and given to visiting contractors, that booms and attachments are lowered when travelling and that goalposts are erected within and between worksites. If part of a vehicle is in contact with a line, HSE says the operator stays in the cab and tells the network operator immediately, others are kept away, and a line is not assumed to be dead until the operator confirms it. If the machine cannot be driven clear, HSE says the driver jumps clear and does not climb down the steps.

A California report on two palm trimmers is summarised in the guide to report 16CA003.

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Electricity and tree work: what OSHA's leaflet and HSE's case study cover

OSHA: Electricity and Tree Care Work

HSE: the power lines page and a case study

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