City workers and members of the Rock County Sheriff's Department were at the accident scene Monday just after the ambulance left with injured Phillip Kramer. Law enforcement officers took pictures of the scene and city workers checked equipment.
By Sara Quam
A Monday morning electrical accident in Luverne left a man in the hospital and parts of town without power.
Just before 10 a.m. Phillip Kramer, 21, of Fulda Electric came into contact with high voltage at the west substation in Luverne.
He was injured and transferred by air ambulance to Sioux Valley Hospital, Sioux Falls. Kramer is now in the Regions Burn Center, St. Paul, where his condition was fair Wednesday.
At the time, Kramer and two co-workers were doing work on the city of Luverne's electrical upgrading project that involves computerized data-gathering equipment.
Parts of town experienced a power surge at the time of the accident. South Luverne, though, was out of power for an hour and a half.
According to City Attorney Don Klosterbuer, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration is investigating Monday’s incident and the city of Luverne is doing its own investigation.
Another electrical accident on city property Oct. 20 ended in death for an out-of-town cable worker. OSHA is investigating it and hasn’t issued any citations.
A report on those findings will be issued in the next couple of weeks.
City Utilities Director Red Arndt was unavailable for comment Monday through Wednesday.