Stupid one.

[dbrown20]

The latest one here at AEP land we found out last week that in Muncie,Ind. that a troubleman goes up in a bucket and replaces a blown fuse on a transformer bank and closes it with his hand. Not good as he was, in addition, wearing a polyester shirt. Severe burns we were told. That's the third bad one from that area since I've been here. One was a guy who lost both arms. One was killed and now this one. What's with those Hoosiers? Are they a bunch of dummies or what? Yeah Mark Kay, what about it? dbrown20

[Trampbag]

Sounds to me like a case of the company needing to train their supervisors.

Or rather they probably have already trained their supervisors to avoid any liability in the inevitable case that the employees get involved in stupid accidents like the one here. Many utilities call their supervisors “managers” or some other name implying that they are not responsible for employees actions, then these “managers” load up the minds of the linemen with “self importance” and “bravado” and that leads to stupid accidents that are called “lineman’s fault”.

That’s one hell of a lot cheaper than training the employee about the rules and to follow them. Then have the supervisor ensuring the rules are followed.

Mind you, if a lot of the rules were followed the job would take a lot longer and would involve using a lot more people. It’s much cheaper to get an under trained lineman to cut corners severely after you played with his head. Besides, the way that Workers Compensation works is it limits the payout to a ridiculously low figure and eliminates the possibility of the employer being sued even if grossly negligent.

I guess I’m just getting old and cynical.

[mscheuerer]

What's with those Hoosiers? Are they a bunch of dummies or what? Yeah Mark Kay, what about it? dbrown20

Sounds like a bumper sticker once saw...

"YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!"

[LINETRASH]

I elect to follow safety rules for 2 reasons,

I dont want to get hurt..

And the company will dole out punishment up to and including termination for violation of a serious safety rule.

This guy sounds like he broke a workzone rule, being within reaching distance of primary, and the ppe issue with the shirt.

Folks, the power cos give us training, protective gear and tools to keep us safe.

They will pay you weather you take 10 min. on a call or 3 hrs.

I go through my trouble call at a fairly good clip, bit when it comes to working near primary, I take my time, wear all the shit I'm supossed to, and never do any cowboy shit. It takes as long as it takes!

I almost never close in on a blown pot from the bucket, 'less I just cant get at it with an extendo. Either way, I wear headphones. I wanna be able to hear my granchildren when I retire...

Anyway, off my soap box.

Did I ever do stupid shit? You bet. I was lucky, some dont get lucky.

[zapped74]

Being a troubleman or whatever your part of the world calls a one man service rig you have to listen to that little voice in your head that says "what if" and then proceed with restoring the customer in whatever time frame it takes.....last time I checked my paystub it still had me listed as hourly. So P.P.E. and all the tools your company provides you with should get the power back on safely.


:D Bringing wattage to your cottage

[walrus]

Read same accident this morning in safety huddle. said he installed fuse back in bottem of co and was backing away when lightning arrestor blew. He had not closed in co yet. Don't know myself why he didn't use hot stick, but he had rubber gloves on with no sleeves. Plus wearing the wrong shirt. This was also on a 3 phase station. Pictures showed porcelian la that had exploded.

[igloo64]

Being stupid will always catch up to you! To bad it has to happen in this trade! God bless everyone!

[just say no]

as per forrest gump..........."stupid is as stupid does"..sorry someone got hurt but!!!!!

[billfoster67]

We had a million of the porcelain arrestors in LA. We threw Rubber Blankets over them so if they blew it wouldn't be on you. Like a blast blanket. We did it all the time, of course when you are on a trouble call or an all nighter- you never have the right arrestors or they are never on the truck that you have to replace them. So when you retap a riser we had this big sand fault tool you hung on the line and held the tap on the bottom end to make sure there was nothing else wrong with the cable- a fault tamer they called it. I know you could use it for overhead, if laterals and taps all over the place and you dont have a grid map or unable to see all the backlots. the top goes on the feed with a clamp and you just hold the tap to it for ten seconds, it will burp if you have still have a fault-it doesn't explode. At first I said what the hell is this thing- now I am trying to figure out why don't we all have a fault tamer? It didn't take any room in a bin, about the size of loadbuster but you could beat around a little bit. It contained a fine sand inside inside an clear epoxy-resin tube. Don't know what the innards were. Sorry- It was Edison protocol to use it when we redid any underground work. And before we tapped the risers.

[tramp67]

Sounds like something you could make out of a K-Mate current limiting fuse and a stirrup, if the company doesn't want to splurge on the fault tamer device.