PDA

View Full Version : Peco Workers Rescued From Atop Pole



mscheuerer
02-28-2008, 10:23 AM
Full Story & Pics at:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20080228_Helicopter_rescues_Peco_workers_in_Folcro ft.html

Helicopter rescues Peco workers in Folcroft
By Jonathan Mattise

Inquirer Staff Writer

A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued two Peco workers from atop a 130-foot power pole in Delaware County yesterday.
The workers were doing maintenance on a transmission line near Chester Pike and Oak Lane in Folcroft when the bucket of their high-lift truck malfunctioned about 9:45 a.m., Peco spokeswoman Cathy Engel said.

The two men, who had harnessed themselves to an arm of the tower as a precaution, grabbed the arm and stayed there until the chopper arrived at 12:20 p.m.

Officials did not release the workers' names.

"It's the first time I've seen something like this," said Tom Weber, assistant chief of the Folcroft Fire Company.

The Coast Guard dispatched the helicopter from Atlantic City.

A crewman lowered to the tower arm was blown side to side in the wind before grabbing the first worker. Ten minutes later, the crewman wrapped his legs around the second worker's torso, and they were reeled in.

The Peco employees were taken to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby. Both had symptoms of hypothermia but no other injuries, Weber said. They were released about 3 p.m., Engel said.

Train service on the track below was shut down, and electricity on the lines was turned off, Weber said. Electricity to the surrounding area was not disrupted, Engel said.

Peco and local authorities determined that an aerial rescue was safer than using another truck, Engel said.

Peco will investigate the malfunction, he said.

One of the employees has been with the company since 2001; the other joined in 2002, Engel said.

BigClive
02-28-2008, 01:54 PM
In the picture it looks like the bucket has actually swung down onto the pole arm. I wonder if a hydraulic line burst. That might also explain why they decided to hook themselves onto the structure.

I've only been stuck in a bucket once, when the hydraulic line blew and the safety valve locked the boom. We had another truck on site so we just got it over and jumped into the other bucket.

CPOPE
02-29-2008, 06:17 AM
130Ft stuck in the air with no way to get down. Bummer and embarasing to the crew and PeCo. ALways have a handline available to get you down or bucket rescue. These guy's had no contingency plan for bucket failure or hurt man rescue in the middle of a right of way. I realize a 130Foot handline is a pain in the ass but you always have to anticipate equipment failure.

High Elevation Self-Rescue System
Should there be a need to self-rescue or rescue someone else from an elevated height, such as an inoperable bucket truck, the new Buckingham 101SR makes it easy. The Buckingham 101SR provides all the components required to self-rescue or if the need arises to rescue a fellow employee. This unit will allow the rescuer the advantage of lowering a hurt person with ease.

http://www.buckinghammfg.com/linemen/apsrs.html

It's easy to Monday morning quarterback but we need to learn from incidents like this. Anticipate the worst case senario and protect yourself at all times.

topgroove
02-29-2008, 06:35 AM
we had a fatality here a long time ago. they brought in a brand new bucket and set it up at a service center. a lineman got in the bucket to test it out. he boomed up in the air and the main cylinder failed. the bucket came crashing down. he was teathered to the bucket with his lanyard but it didn't help him. he died at the scene.

returntotheeve
02-29-2008, 10:00 AM
I would always have a handline just in case. But 130 feet? We now have whats called a SkyGenie which is a repelling device. Its a straight line of rope dedicated for emergency use. It comes with a 'braking' shackle for lack of a better term. I've never heard of anyone using it except in training, but they discourage that too due to injuries. Clumsy linemen getting banged up exiting the bucket. Were these linemen injured during the bucket failure? Were they equipped to climb down the structure?

topgroove
02-29-2008, 10:26 AM
from the picture it looks like there were no climbing steps installed on the steel pole. i'm sure those guys were half frozen anyway fRom standing in the bucket for all those hours.

Bull Dog
02-29-2008, 12:35 PM
I never went up that high with out a way out. Thankfully nothing ever happened. Tallest stick was 125 ft and steel 137 ft Steel had a way to install ladders to get down or removeable steps. Hooks do good in the wood pole. Is this common to build steel with out slots for steps? Mabey the brains think just beacuse its besides the road there is no need. When they get the bill for this I bet they think different. Not to mention they could have been hurt and dead buy the time the helo got there. Engineers don't think sometimes thats a fact. Let here anyone dispute that comment!

barehander
02-29-2008, 01:45 PM
Here's some film footage a friend sent me.......
http://cbs3.com/local/Rescue.Cherry.Picker.2.663976.html

Where I work, we also have the SkiGenie. What a pain!
1236
It comes with a funky little harness you put on, you slide the metal cover down, make 3 or 4 wraps around the rod, and then slide the cover back over it and attach 1 end to the bucket & the genie to your harness. It has a opening top and botton for the rope to enter and exit. Depending on your weight, to many wraps and you may not even move.....to little wraps and you come down like a rock!
The Buckingham system is a better set-up, but it's not something you pull out of the bag and just use without a lot of practice, repelling is not that easy. The descender shown is a Petzl Stop....
1237
you squeeze the red handle when the rope is loaded very slowly or you will really pick up some speed, and if you panick and grab it, down like a rock!
We use a better descender called a Petzl ID in our tower rescue.
1238
Works the same except it has a panic mode...it has a small window where it releases and if you panic and pull too hard, it locks out and stops.

I, like CPOPE, always have a contingency plan, you never know when something could happen.....

I'm hearing the truck was a Bronto with fiber optic controls and that was the second time they had used the truck...

old lineman
02-29-2008, 08:35 PM
I would always have a handline just in case. But 130 feet? We now have whats called a SkyGenie which is a repelling device. Its a straight line of rope dedicated for emergency use. It comes with a 'braking' shackle for lack of a better term. I've never heard of anyone using it except in training, but they discourage that too due to injuries. Clumsy linemen getting banged up exiting the bucket. Were these linemen injured during the bucket failure? Were they equipped to climb down the structure?



It's obvious that you are not exiting the bucket in the proper manner if injuries are occurring. I've trained no less than 500 people how to exit the bucket and the only injury that occurred was when the student allowed the life line to stay on top of his finger even though everyone was telling him to look out for that. Once the weight came on his yanked his hand out and peeled his knuckle.
As for the Sky Genie, they don't have a positive 'lock off' so I would not recommend their use.
Set your sights higher and use a superior product that has a positive lock off. All Petzel products are designed with this feature.
The user MUST decide when to unlock and that means it has to be intential. And it also means that it is automatically lock preventing any free falls.
The Old Lineman

markwho
03-01-2008, 12:22 AM
We use the sky genie. We have not had any problem during training. Fortunately we have yet to use them out in the field.

mainline
03-01-2008, 04:38 PM
We have a bucket descent device at our uitility, but the name escapes me. It works very well. I have used it twice on the job no problem. The sky genie is another story. We had a trainer at our company a number of years ago who passed one around a training session then neglected to check if he had the correct number of wraps. Needless to say he stepped out of the bucket and dropped to the ground. He broke both his heels. The sky genie is not idiot proof, it leaves the opportunity for injury. Monday I'll get the name of the device we currently use.

graybeard
03-02-2008, 12:13 AM
Back when we used to have our own tree trimmers one of them was on the safety commitee and was setting up for a self rescue. He was using the sky jeanie and didn't put enough wraps on and down he came. Now hes a bird dog for contract tree trimmers.
Anyway we don't have any self rescue equipment on any of the trucks in our shop and have never done self rescue since. The company I work for talks and talks safety but no one seems to ever want to talk about this subject.
I didn't see where there was any mention of a groundman or any kind of grunt. I've been stuck in the air twice, once when the truck froze up in the dead of winter in a storm. The second time was when the hose blew. Two of us up in the bucket and no grunt and we were waving at people and they would wave back. The foreman even drove by and waved and on his way back he finally thought maybe someting was wrong and stopped. He brought us up a hand line and we got our stuff and climbed down.
I'm going to see if I can show this story at the Monday morning meeting and try to get something going again.
Glad these guys were alright.

BigClive
03-02-2008, 08:44 AM
Ironically the time of the year I use bucket trucks most I don't have any self rescue device. No great deal, I work in the city area, so we'd call the access unit company and get THEM to get us down!

On the other hand at the time of year I rarely use a bucket truck there's no shortage of every variety of Petzl descender. The Edinburgh Tattoo job has a lot of pro riggers on it who are used to working from ropes at height.

Technically speaking if bucket truck workers wore the combination harness that can support you in a sitting position, then the only device needed for self rescue would be a figure-eight or other controlled descent unit.

BigClive
03-02-2008, 06:18 PM
Peco rescue.... The video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mh3vRtj5ey8

They did climb out the basket I see. I wonder why. Had the unit failed against the structure or had the stabilisers sunk into the ground?

"little beaver"
03-03-2008, 09:45 AM
It's obvious that you are not exiting the bucket in the proper manner if injuries are occurring. I've trained no less than 500 people how to exit the bucket and the only injury that occurred was when the student allowed the life line to stay on top of his finger even though everyone was telling him to look out for that. Once the weight came on his yanked his hand out and peeled his knuckle.
As for the Sky Genie, they don't have a positive 'lock off' so I would not recommend their use.
Set your sights higher and use a superior product that has a positive lock off. All Petzel products are designed with this feature.
The user MUST decide when to unlock and that means it has to be intential. And it also means that it is automatically lock preventing any free falls.
The Old Lineman

HELLO OL!! We were planning on being in the area i.e. Quebec/Vt for 'Cabane a sucre', but our plans got changed. I promised I'd look after a 3 ph job for one of the Oil Companies. Typically, they are just getting their permits from OGC (Oil and Gas Commission) this week to clear the R of W adjacent to the pipeline.

Anyway, here's my story of stuck in the bucket. We were working out west toward the Alberta border in the afternoon, temp about 0 degrees F. We had just about finished hanging the Xfrm and we were doing up the service and RS the Foreman said that he's headed for Town.
Ed and I were still up in the Bucket. He was no more than out of site and the PTO came out of gear on the Bucket. So here we are stuck at about the neutral level on a 40' pole.
I looked the situation over and Ed said, 'You're not thinking what I think you're thinking??" I said, "Well I not staying up here for the night". (This was a new installation and some of these country roads, you could be there a long while before anyone came along)
So I crawled out of the bucket and stood on the Telephone and slid down the pole to the snowbank below! I had on my Army Parka that we wore in cold weather and there was lots of snow. Actually, it was nothing.
We had a real useless alcoholic mechanic in those days and I had told him previous that the PTO was screwed up. They finally found a way to get rid of him, but that was down the road a bit yet.

old lineman
03-05-2008, 10:04 AM
HELLO OL!! We were planning on being in the area i.e. Quebec/Vt for 'Cabane a sucre', but our plans got changed. I promised I'd look after a 3 ph job for one of the Oil Companies. Typically, they are just getting their permits from OGC (Oil and Gas Commission) this week to clear the R of W adjacent to the pipeline.

Anyway, here's my story of stuck in the bucket. We were working out west toward the Alberta border in the afternoon, temp about 0 degrees F. We had just about finished hanging the Xfrm and we were doing up the service and RS the Foreman said that he's headed for Town.
Ed and I were still up in the Bucket. He was no more than out of site and the PTO came out of gear on the Bucket. So here we are stuck at about the neutral level on a 40' pole.
I looked the situation over and Ed said, 'You're not thinking what I think you're thinking??" I said, "Well I not staying up here for the night". (This was a new installation and some of these country roads, you could be there a long while before anyone came along)
So I crawled out of the bucket and stood on the Telephone and slid down the pole to the snowbank below! I had on my Army Parka that we wore in cold weather and there was lots of snow. Actually, it was nothing.
We had a real useless alcoholic mechanic in those days and I had told him previous that the PTO was screwed up. They finally found a way to get rid of him, but that was down the road a bit yet.


Hi Beav,
We are still in Fla. and won't be back until Apr. For sure I'll be in Que. for August 1. High school reunion, 53+ years. Should be interesting.
Hopefully you can get away.
PM me with your mailing address and I'll sent you some literature on utility rescue equipment including self rescue.
This was a good winter to miss across the continent. Hope all is well.
The Old Lineman

mscheuerer
03-05-2008, 01:21 PM
In reading these last few posts I've been paying particular attention to the observations that were being made by some of you guy's. One thing that sticks out in my mind was said that there was no grunt help on the ground during this incident. Another good note that Clive mentions was the fact that they had left the basket to strap themselves to the pole tower. At our safety meeting yesterday they revisted the procedures involved in self rescue as well as the need to be aware of the possibility of suffering from Harness Induced Death whereas the blood starts pooling in the arteries and legs in the event of an ejection or fall from an elevated height. I started thinking of the pictures I saw of those guys and thinking to myself that if one HAD slipped on the pole arm or brace or fell to the six foot limit on his ambilical how the hell would he pull himself back up onto the structure??? Lets face it, some of us aren't as young buckey as we once were. There were no Steps in place nor easy access to hardware, bracketry etc to grip onto. None the less they came out alright but lets keep remembering ALL of the what if's out there.

Here is an PDF article related to yesterdays discusion. Hopefully none of us will ever have to worry about it. But i'll tell ya what! I sure as hell would like to know that my Grunt, Crew, Partners etc...are well aware of what could possibly happen im hanging there dangling... It might speed things up if you know what I mean... Those guy's got rescued 2 1/2 hours into the incident... Be safe fellas!

Mike

SAFETY ALERT - HARNESS INDUCED DEATH ARTICLE:

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/67342/Safety-Alert-06-02-Working--at-Heights-Prevention-of-Falls-and-Fall-Arrest.pdf

old lineman
03-05-2008, 08:25 PM
In reading these last few posts I've been paying particular attention to the observations that were being made by some of you guy's. One thing that sticks out in my mind was said that there was no grunt help on the ground during this incident. Another good note that Clive mentions was the fact that they had left the basket to strap themselves to the pole tower. At our safety meeting yesterday they revisted the procedures involved in self rescue as well as the need to be aware of the possibility of suffering from Harness Induced Death whereas the blood starts pooling in the arteries and legs in the event of an ejection or fall from an elevated height. I started thinking of the pictures I saw of those guys and thinking to myself that if one HAD slipped on the pole arm or brace or fell to the six foot limit on his ambilical how the hell would he pull himself back up onto the structure??? Lets face it, some of us aren't as young buckey as we once were. There were no Steps in place nor easy access to hardware, bracketry etc to grip onto. None the less they came out alright but lets keep remembering ALL of the what if's out there.

Here is an PDF article related to yesterdays discusion. Hopefully none of us will ever have to worry about it. But i'll tell ya what! I sure as hell would like to know that my Grunt, Crew, Partners etc...are well aware of what could possibly happen im hanging there dangling... It might speed things up if you know what I mean... Those guy's got rescued 2 1/2 hours into the incident... Be safe fellas!

Mike

SAFETY ALERT - HARNESS INDUCED DEATH ARTICLE:

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/67342/Safety-Alert-06-02-Working--at-Heights-Prevention-of-Falls-and-Fall-Arrest.pdf


Mike you made some excellent points, re. no grunt, suspension trauma.etc.
You could add a couple more.
How about temperature, how about darkness, how about a location where helicopters don't exist eg. hell and gone?
In my opinion no crew is fully prepared that doesn't have a 'self rescue' system on site and at least a grunt to send it aloft. It goes without saying that a throw line of adequate length is a must. In a unit with a basket of this size why wouldn't it be standard fere to always take it aloft.
You'll do it a thousand times and never need it, but "it's better to have it and not need it. Than to need it and not have it".
The Old Lineman