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wtdoor67
03-28-2008, 09:38 PM
Have any of you GURUS known of any documented electrical injury to personnel while working on any line that was grounded in accordance with the rules in force at the time of the injury?

If you can quote date,time and location I would like to see it stated.

If not I am gonna mark it up as an urban legen

BigClive
03-28-2008, 10:33 PM
Try a search on Google for:-

lineman +electrocuted

or click this link:-
http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=lineman+%2Belectrocuted&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

16,000 links to sift through though....

wtdoor67
03-29-2008, 10:02 AM
What I am curious about is almost first hand experience by one of the linemen on this forum who have attended a safety meeting and heard of a happening such as this.

Newspaper reports don't give the details such as I am interested in. They amuse people in the trade with their reporting sometimes. I have seen many stories of electrocutions with a lot of the details garbled. The voltage is usually wrong and many times some of the other details are wrong.

Most power co's have monthly safety meetings and with accidents all the details familiar to linemen are usually discussed, type of structure, voltage, equipment used and so on.

I have never heard of such an accident described in any safety meeting I have attended.

LINCRW
03-29-2008, 10:24 AM
I have never seen or heard of anyone being injured (electric injury) while working on a properly grounded circuit.

I have heard of people grounding improperly or working improperly and being injured.

Meat
03-29-2008, 11:28 AM
This always sounded like urban legend but it supposed to be true.A j-man and hot apprentice were working a highline pole with hot underbuild .Improperly epz grounded the highline to a hot phase instead of the system neutral.Went up completed their work and discovered their mistake later.Northwest lineman may have heard this where I did.Camp Rilea from Bob Glover.I don't know if there is any documentation of this but it's a good heads up.If there is any doubt, voltage test.Sorry wtdoor I know this doesn't help you but your post reminded me of that story.Meat!

joeholl
03-29-2008, 04:39 PM
I don't have any facts for you, but I know this. Grounded or not, even if the grounds are installed correctly, if a line is heated up on someone they are in trouble. Current takes any and all paths. If a lineman is one of those paths at the time the line is energized they will get current flow through them. Grounds only partially protect lineworkers. Grounds will eliminate any backfeed or induced voltage on the line, but will not protect you if a line is energized. They will ensure that the fuse or recloser operates as quickly as possible, but they won't elimate current flow through your body.

wtdoor67
03-30-2008, 08:15 PM
It would just be a guess, but I believe that the combined experience of the many people who peruse this page would have to exceed 2000 years at least. I'm thinking at least 100 people with an average of 20 years experience.

With this in mind and the lack of response I would gather that some aspect of grounding etc. must be wrong as thought of in the way we have all been taught.

I think some of the science must be flawed. It is clear that grounding is some sort of preventative, but I still don't think it is clearly understood. Kinda like the Bumblebee conundrum maybe. For a long time Engineers thought the Bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly. But the Bumblebee doesn't know this.

As you learn in those basic DC drawings, it is logical to think a lineman on a pole is just a parallel circuit. In a drawing depicting a parallel circuit the person on the pole is just represented by a resistance like all the other resistances. When energized all the parallel circuits have the same voltage impressed across them.

With all the storm situations that have happened across this country, I just believe someone would have first hand knowledge of an injury with a properly grounded line.

Ah well, maybe someone will come up with something eventually.

lewy
03-31-2008, 04:41 PM
I have no personnel experience & can not recall ever hearing about it in a sefety meeting.
However if it were to happen to me, I would prefer to be using EPG

500 KVA
03-31-2008, 05:44 PM
I cannot remember the dates and since it did not happen in my company cannot access the information, but it has happened.

Hey dinosaurs lived. I never saw one of them either. But those petrified bones they dig up makes me a believer even though they could be easily faked.

Contact a Brian Erga at ESCI. I think they are an advertiser, or once were, on this site. They would probably have the information you want to know.

PA BEN
03-31-2008, 07:43 PM
He's the man. I've been taught EPG by Brian. If anyone knows he well. http://esci.net/

wtdoor67
03-31-2008, 09:06 PM
Well what I was curious about I don't think could have happened quite as long ago.

I just think if something like this had happened a few times in the last 75 or 100 years there would have been a lot of documentation. It just irritates me that I can never believe this topic has been discussed in a safety meeting.

I think what wiped out the Dinosaurs was cigarette smoking and lightening strikes. Probably a big lightening storm I expect.