21-year-old worker hospitalized after being shocked by electricity in Box Elder Co.

BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — On Monday afternoon, officials with the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office say they responded to an incident involving a worker being shocked by electricity.

The worker, who officials report is a 21-year-old man, was taken to the hospital with third-degree burns on the palms of both of his hands in addition to burns on his right hip. Officials say the incident happened around 1 p.m. when officers responded to the area of 8515 N 4600 W in Elwood.

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According to the sheriff’s office, the 21-year-old was working to install a fiber optic line on a power pole. He was reportedly working for a communications company and was working on the pole while in the “raised bucket of a boom truck,” officials said.

“The material the man was working with either accidentally came into contact with a power line or came close enough to cause an electrical arc,” the Box Elder Sheriff’s Office said.

Officials said that, after the shock, the electricity exited the man’s body through his right hip, which officers said was burned in addition to the palms of both of his hands. Officials did not detail the severity of the burn on the man’s hip.

The man was initially taken to the Bear River Valley Hospital in Tremonton in an ambulance before he was later flown to the University of Utah Burn Unit via helicopter, according to officials.

“He was alert and in surprisingly good spirits,” officials said.

The Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office did not release his condition or the severity of the man’s wounds.

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