The feds are investigating a wind farm operation near Pratt, Kansas where two workplace incidents have occurred in recent weeks including one where a worker fell 120 feet from a turbine and survived.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has started a probe at the Ninnescah Wind Farm in south central Kansas’ Pratt county.
The incident involving the worker who fell from atop a tower happened earlier in the month. He landed in muddy dirt and was not seriously injured. But OSHA’s also looking into an incident last week where a 26-year old employee of Blattner Energy was struck in the head by a bolt. Blattner Energy is based in Avon, Minnesota.
Pratt County sheriff’s officers say it was a four-pound, 10-inch bolt that fell inside the tower. The employee, Gary Newman of California was about 100 feet below the tower and still 100 feet above ground when he was hit by the bolt and knocked unconscious, suffering a “severe head wound.”