Downed line incident.

Hopefully this facebook video will show OK. It's an interesting situation where a lineman flicked a downed line off a traffic light pole and it became energised.

I'm glad whatever gloves and boots he was wearing stood up to that.

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...27&oe=5D362A4E

It was hot the whole time Clive.

I got the impression it was already lying on the ground behind him before he flicked it.

I agree. It was live the whole time. Likely back feed. You can see an arc when the wire comes off the light pole. It looks like the lineman had rubber gloves on....smart guy. As they say NOT GROUNDED NOT DEAD.

You’re correct Clive, it was laying on the ground and across the traffic signal which are generally grounded. But it was hot the whole time, possible back feed. He had rubber gloves on and hot shoes and he’s a lucky dude. That’s the company I worked for before I retired, I’ll try to get more info.

I thought when he flipped it he might have gotten it into something hot. Labor did you all have a lot of 4kv like PSE&G?

Yeah we have 4kv but the area that incident occurred is 12.5kv Charlie.

Looking at the pole in the background, he’s on the load side of that disconnect pole. That, in itself, means nothing as there may have been tie boxes on the load side of his position. There was a fatality on the property about 25 years ago, wire down not burning, lineman in bucket ready to put back up, ground man grabs wire no gloves = electrocution. Investigation shows crew left one c/o box closed that was feeding traffic signal. Bad mistake as the phase feeding light was tied to a customer owned dry transformer which backfed the downed wire. I’m thinking that may be the case here. BTW, this example is why they make potential indicators gentlemen, for all you young guys out there, bad shit happens real fast.

I totally agree with you Labor. Every truck should have a potential indicator, and a set of grounds. Many incidents would have been avoided. Granted I seem to end up with contractors that either don’t have them or won’t maintain them.