Never Hoped To Post My Own Story!

[CPOPE]

"We've resolved the problem now by grounding the shield wire to the structure we're working on."
It's an safe workpractice requirement you should have been doing in the 1st place. Not monday morning QB'ing but learn from the incident. Push that your company policy training and work methods meets and exceeds the minimum OSHA requirement:

1910.269(n)(3)
"Equipotential zone." Temporary protective grounds shall be placed at such locations and arranged in such a manner as to prevent each employee from being exposed to hazardous differences in electrical potential.

It was once believed that bracket grounding was all that was needed to adequately protect a person on a transmission or distribution pole and that “personal protective grounds” or “work-site grounds” to establish an equipotential zone around a worker was not an absolutely necessary. As time has progressed and more studies performed, it's now a requirement that personal grounds are indeed needed and equipotential zones for workers are essential in maintaining a safe working environment for employees.

Insulate Isolate set up a ZEP and If it ain't grounded it aint dead.

Thanks for sharing your close call. God has blessed you.

[IronLine]

Very true partner, we've all used the theory of equipotential grounding when coming in contact with the phases themselves, but it also holds true with the shield wire when its insulated! God has blessed me...or he's just got some more **** to put me through to give him a laugh!

[BigClive]

What do you use to actually bond from the wire to the structure? While it's pretty easy to get a good low resistance connection on the wire itself, it's quite easy to get a bad connection onto metalwork that has a layer of oxide or paint. In some instances it could be a build up of dirt in a clamp that prevents good connection.

Humans are disappointingly fragile when it comes to electricity. It really doesn't take much of a potential difference to pass muscle clenchingly high current through our juicy bodies. Not helped much by the fact we ooze salty water when we work!

[IronLine]

We've got a wire ground attached to a short (2') hot stick with a cable going to a tower t-clamp. With the oxide and paint issues, we normally just grind the hell out of it with the teeth of the clamp until enough is rubbed off to ensure a good connection!

[BigClive]

But how do you KNOW you have a good connection. It's like stick welding... You think you've got a good connection, but sometimes you have to jiggle the clip until you can strike an arc, except in your case the first thing you're going to know about getting a bad earth is when you get zapped.

A permanently installed brass nut and bolt or copper tail would be useful. Hardest bit would be encouraging the painters not to paint over it.

[IronLine]

Thats an excellent idea, add it to our list eh?

[PA BEN]

No official incident reports were written up, so I'm going to leave out company names/locations.

Why didn't you fill out an accident report?

[IronLine]

Our company did, the company we were working with chose not to.

[PK270]

Lucky and I am so glad to hear it. Couple questions though. Were you bonded (with the bird) to the same point you were going to safety to? Did you bond the shield wire to the tower before you tried to safety off? Where were you positioned when you got hit? I am still confused as to what hit you, that situation it could be several things.

Prefered way (my opinion) would be to bond to the tower, bond the shield wire to the tower, take a wand with you, attach to the tower and transfer without touching the shield wire. Then wand on to the bird before removing the bond, remove bond and wand off. A suit would also be nice on 500. I have seen a lot off stuff in 20 yrs, insulated shield wire is some nasty s***. There is a boatload of juice on it especialy on a nice windy day.

You are 100% right about 2 safeties. In that job task it is more dangerous (right now) to transfer with 2 safeties.

Clive, when he said (buzzard board) let me tell you that "paint" aint what you have to worry about for a connection. It is a "heavy coat" but there is some arguement as to which end it comes out. You dont want to drink too much the night before. NASTY

[IronLine]

EXCELLENT point man, it was one of those days that it had been hot, just rained, and the wind was kicking up. The shield wire was NOT grounded to the tower, we were preparing to transfer off, and I'm pretty sure that I had bonded back onto the bird when I moved my safety. Could it be the static from the bird kicking onto the shield wire? Since the shield wire was insulated, any static from the helicopter would of course stay on the wire...Everything is kind of hazy as to the sequence now lol. Have done a lot of work DE-insulating shield wire, think thats the way to go!