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electric squirrel
02-06-2007, 07:55 PM
Heard rumor that maybe Par had an accident involving a car and a pole being framed,just wanting to know, in the So Cal area......E.S.

electric squirrel
02-08-2007, 08:11 PM
Good to hear nobody was hurt,BUT STILL we need to pull our heads out of our ass's .I am the first admit that I screw up now and then, but this was a stupid move on the crews part. It could have been alot worse,,,,,LETS ALL stop and think a little more even when we do simple task!!!!!! E.S.:cool:

safetygeek
02-11-2007, 07:00 PM
I read a report of a double fatality that occured in the So Cal area that killed a lineman and the driver of a vehicle. The crew had a transmission pole rigged on balance and a lineman had control of the top of the pole when the operator swung the pole into the roadway when an oncoming car ran into the butt of the pole, ramming the pole top into the lineman with lethal force. The impact of the pole butt killed the driver of the vehicle and seriously injured his wife. The work was being performed at night without any traffic control and the local news reported that the operator of the line truck was arrested for involuntary manslaughter. There are several other circumstances surrounding this tragedy.


Pole being moved by crane smashes into car, kills 2 in Los Angeles suburb

By: Associated Press -

UPLAND, Calif. -- A 75-foot pole dangling from a crane smashed through a passing car, killing the driver and a construction worker and injuring a passenger, police said.

Workers were trying to install the power pole on a street corner Wednesday night in this Los Angeles suburb. When the crane operator swung the pole -- which was dangling horizontally -- into the street, one end tore the roof from the car and the other struck a worker guiding it, police said.

The pole was moved without traffic being warned or diverted, police said.


The car's driver, an 81-year-old man, was killed on impact, authorities said. His passenger, an 80-year-old woman, was in critical condition.

The 29-year-old worker died at a hospital about an hour after the accident, police Sgt. Greg Doyle said.

The crane operator, Joseph Dimaano, 31, has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter but has not been charged.

Trampbag
02-11-2007, 08:20 PM
Every company will emphatically state that it supplies all the necessary equipment and personnel to the job safely. Most linemen decry that they would never do a job unsafely, not ever.

Can anyone tell me why we continue to have these stupid accidents? Is there something seriously wrong with those who work in this trade????


Before anyone can deny that they would ever be involved in this type of accident, or one equally as stupid and unnecessary, why in the hell is this stupidity continuing on such a frequent scale????

You all gotta know, especially anyone who worked for the contactors in SO Cal, if someone had adamantly refused to do this job without the proper traffic control their job would have been in serious jeopardy, if not gone. Local 47 doesn’t have seniority in its' contract so dissenters can go down the road really easily.


A trip to da Riverside Hall, priceless! No loss no grievance ‘cause there is lots of work and you’ll be cleared in a day or two.


The authorities should also have gone to the crew’s GF house and led them away in handcuffs.

The safety manager of PAR should be incarcerated as well.

It is not surprising that PAR was the offending company, but it just as easily could have been Henkels.

Local 47 needs to evaluate itself. If someone actually got off their ass in the hall and went out and did some crew visits, I mean really did some crew visits maybe the stupid accident frequency would start to go down. Maybe the reps need to go to the yard safety meetings of all the contractors. They have been nothing but going through the motions for years. Ass chewing meetings, intimidation day.

Maybe Pat should send Tom out to do the job he is supposed to do, represent the members. Hey Bobby what do you have to say? It was one of your people.

Maybe someone in the IBEW should face manslaughter charges.

IBEW Local 47 Safety Committee
Jeff Flory - Chairman
Chris Avila
Rueben Castro
Mark Familetti
Eric Hetrick
Pat Jelensky
Robert Lindborg
Robert Ortega
Gary Updegraff
Greg Vetter


Just in case someone didn't understand me, I've had it with all these stupid and senseless deaths caused by the utility industry. When the hell is someone going to get some backbone and wake up????? We need a change NOW.

Grow some balls guys.

Bull Dog
02-11-2007, 09:40 PM
Hey tramp good to hear from you. Listen I got plenty of balls and i think this is something that can in part be explained beacuse were all humans and make mistakes. The other part is the culture of carelessness in SOME companys. It needs to start with the highest man and go all the way down to the lowest. Same goes for the union leadership. Lets get off our duffs and change the attitudes or this wont stop. SAFETY SHOULD BE NUMBER ONE not anything else. I was fortunate to work for a company that stressed safety and we didnt have many accidents. There was one in thirty five years that resulted in a fatality. It was a real freak thing equipment failure. Not the linemans fault but one too many. I think were all sick when we hear of this and there famlies are left with out a father. Im afraid the way things are going in the industry this unfortunately will happen more sorry to say.

electric squirrel
02-11-2007, 10:12 PM
Hey tramp unless Iam confused , you meant to say it was Pouk that had the accident in which you are speaking. I agree with you 100% about 47's management or the lack of !!!! E.S.:cool:

Trampbag
02-11-2007, 10:47 PM
I’m sorry for the confusion ES. PAR was mentioned throughout the thread. Are you saying it was another contractor???

It really doesn’t matter though. As one contractor gets run off a site another contractor fills the void. The same people man the site with a few exceptions. Same people, same problems, different colored trucks. It was the same when 1245 had jurisdiction. Same dispatch hall, pretty much the same practices and ABM’s, different dispatcher and Rep. (only because the Rep “JJ” retired)

I’ve been IBEW for a long time. Supported the union for a long time. But something is going wrong. Local 47 isn’t the only LU that has forgotten where it was supposed to be going but it is the one where many stupid accidents are happening, and have been for a long time, with little direction from the hall except possibly where golf is concerned.

By the way, any contractor hands, how much “working dues” did you pay in 2006? Did you get your money’s worth???? Maybe someone should ask Joseph Dimaano, the operator involved, if he felt he got his money’s worth as he was handcuffed and arrested. Presumably he was under the direction of a Lineman.

Trampbag
02-12-2007, 12:39 AM
I don’t think I blamed the companies. I think I blamed the trade.

The trade is the companies and the tradesmen. The union is the tradesmen.

It kinda gets confusing when the accidents repeat, repeat, repeat so often.

The supervisors with the contactors are us. The managers with the contractors are us. The GFs are us. The Foremen are us. The tradesmen are us. Almost all were or are IBEW.

At what point do we really actually take responsibility and blame ourselves??????

Both Pouk and PAR, if in So Cal, are Local 47 IBEW. The IBEW is us. I don’t care if you’re from Kalamazoo or Winnemucca or Toronto, if you’re IBEW it’s us.

Is anyone out there happy with what’s happening????

rusty
02-12-2007, 10:26 AM
To One and All,

As we all know there are MANY REASONS for accident, but each and almost every time it is our Brothers and their families that suffer because of them. But it is my beliefs that many accidents and those who help create the environment that causes them are escaping accountability at the expense of fair and honesty treatment of our Brothers and their families left behind!

Only if we refuse to let our lives and limbs be a line item on a bid will it ever change! We can no longer remain silent about smoke and mirror safety and training programs and unsafe working conditions! If the company can isolate themselves from accountability with documented safety and training policies thereby denying fair treatment to our Brothers and their families, they damn well can be held to THE VERY SAME STANDARDS AND POLICIES they use to protect themselves and their profits!!!

Trampbag
02-17-2007, 10:36 AM
I’d surely like to hear what Pat Lavin has to say. Maybe Tom Brown will answer for him.



Bobby Van Noy is the contractor rep isn’t he????


Still haven’t heard from anyone on the local 47 “Safety Committee” yet.


I’m not picking on Local 47 but rather all the IBEW.

Jim Tomaseski is the director of safety for the IO. His phone number is 202 728-6040 and his E-mail address is safety@ibew.org . Maybe someone should ask him what the IBEW plan is to slow down the carnage caused by the inability of the IBEW to effectively promote safely on IBEW job sites. After all, wasn’t that the original concept of the IBEW back in the 1880s??



At the Second Convention of the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (as the IBEW was then known), first Grand President Henry Miller said, "No brands of skilled labor ever presented a more unorganized or demoralized condition than that of the Electrical Workers of American in the year of 1889."

How appropriate. Still seems to fit.

LINESKIN
02-25-2007, 12:22 PM
TRAMPBAG, that was a great comment, it is us. ALL OF US!