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  1. #1

    Default What Just Happened

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    This is a story that appeared in the last issue of Powerlineman Magazine. What do you think happened?

    What just happened? By Mike DaSilva




    If you hang around linemen long enough, you are bound to hear stories. Some are retold several times, some have never been heard, outside of an investigation.
    This one is mine.
    Early one sunday morning, the phone rang and like any other call out it seemed routine. Pole hit and needed to be replaced.. I said I would head in, and then looked out the window and saw the snow,and immediately Wished I hadn't answered the phone, but that's the job. When we all hit the warehouse, with our crew consisting of 2 foremen, 1 line man and 1 apprentice, we got the right equipment and dressed for the cold, and we headed out to the job. It was a 45' pole ,with 3 phase primary, cap rack and street light.


    The roads had not been completely plowed yet and it was rough going. When we arrived on site, we were able to pull off the road and did our job briefing,wher we discussed pole cover and what rubber to use.. I volunteered to go up in the other foremans' bucket since he was senior man, and I noticed the tool tray was missing. when I questioned him about it, He replied that it must have fallen off on the way out to the job.I thought about going back for another truck, but instead I filled up a nosebag with hand tools and a few extra nuts and washer to save time. I went up in one bucket, and the lineman and apprentice in the other.
    We removed the st. lt. and cap rack and then went back down to help with the pole set, by bringing the bucket straight down with the boom up in the air.

    We were able to move the pole enough to pull the old butt and put the new pole in the same spot with out digging. when we pulled it, we noticed the hole had a few feet of ground water. We set the pole in the hole, came off on the winch and thinking we hit bottom when the pole dropped 2 feet and shot water up in the air and splashed all of us.
    It was snowing the whole time, so we were a little damp anyway, and now we were a little more wet. Not happy about that, but we climbed back in the buckets, and when I jumped into mine, all the snow on the boom, which was straight up in the air, came down on top of me and in the bucket. even less happy now. I dusted myself off and scooped out the bucket as much as I could, but even the bag of tools had snow in it.

    We proceeded to frame and transfer the neutral and A phase, and while the other 2 were tying in a phase, I dropped down to drill for the B phase insulator. The phases were staggered with B phase on my side, so I dropped below it and reached up to drill the holes. I thought about wrapping a blanket around the phase since it had a stirrup on it, but the other 2 were still on "A" phase, so I just planned on staying below it. The wind was picking up and it was still snowing and I was wet and impatient to get it done, so I put the bolts and jug in the pole by reaching up in order to stay below the hot phase. All was well until I dropped the nut for the bottom bolt. No problem since I brought extra, right. I saw one in the bag, under the tools, and some snow, and tried to grab it, but I couldn't with my rubber glove on. so I removed the glove and having a cotton liner on under it, picked up the nut and screwed it on the bottom bolt without putting my rubber glove back on.

    Just as I let go of the nut, I felt an incredible shock down my right arm and on the right side of my head. I remember seeing what appeared to be a tunnel of white rings, and when it stopped I shook my head and said "what the hell was that?" The other lineman said "you just leaned back into the phase". I said that I didn't because I was still below it. I pulled my cotton liner off and saw that I had 3 little burn marks on my thumb and 2 fingers.There was no visable flash or noise other than me jumping a little. I was shook up, but I felt okay so I put my glove back on and finished transferring the rest of the phases, About another 20 minutes, and the whole time I was wondering if I should get checked out or just forget it.

    At this point, we went down to warm up and have something to eat and I opted to tell the other foreman what had happened and showed him my fingers. He asked about going to the E.R. but I said felt okay, so he called our manager who insisted we call an ambulance, which was just 2 blocks south of us. The EMT's arrived and walked right past me and I said "hey, I'm the one your looking for", which surprised them after hearing there was an electrical contact.


    They checked my Bp, which was not surprisingly elevated quite a bit, and opted to take me to the E.R.
    while riding there, they asked me where the entrance wound was and I said I had no idea. So I took off my traffic vest, FR sweater,FR shirt, and they mentioned there was a pin hole in my t shirt. After removing that, they saw a pencil sized hole in my left shoulder blade. I never felt anything there, or even below my right shoulder.
    after spending about 5 hours at the hospital while they checked my blood enzymes,I talked with my manager and safety man and explained what happened.They released me that night, and the next day I went to work as normal, and told everyone what had happened again.
    even after 6 years of thinking about it, I have never felt that I leaned into the primary. what I do believe is that I was hit with an inductive flash due to the moisture/humidity,both in the air and on my clothes, and the wind blowing and snowing.
    I don't believe I would still have my fingers if I managed to live through a contact, which I doubt happened due to what I felt in my head and arm and what I saw.
    There never was any pain after the initial jolt, and my fingers healed in a few days. I felt fine physically but but more than a little upset with myself for what had happened.


    As I said, It's been over 6 years since that happened, and I've had lots of time to think about it. I still feel the same about the "contact", but I know wothout a doubt I made many mistakes that day starting with wet clothes, not enough rubber, and rushing to get done. I knew better than that. I should have stayed with the others until they finished tying in the phase, and worked together all the way down. We should have wrapped B phase with a blanket, and communicated more during the job. We started out doing everything right, until I decided to speed things up. Only by the grace of God, did I survive my own stupidity with minor injurues. During the safety investigation, we were all given probation after it was determined that we violated several safety rules. Hostestly I wouldn't have care if they gave me time off without pay.I was just happy that it wasn't an expensive lesson I learned that day. No fatality, no major burns, no missing fingers and I still got to go home to my family.


    My advice: Don't let circumstances dictate how you do your job in regards to safety, and never let your discomfort or anger allow you to cut corners. Be safe. Always. When things are going wrong, step back and take a breath.


    I plan to retire soon, after 38 years. Glad I'm still here to enjoy that.

  2. #2

    Default

    I agree wholeheartedly about the lack of cover, wet or damp clothes is something that down here in the South is a given most everyday from start to finish from about May-September, so not to sure how much that contributed, people in different buckets will sometimes work on different phases, not saying that it is the best habit but I am saying it happens. Electricity is a funny thing, there's a reason all the educated so-called smart people call it ELECTRICAL THEORY. Charlie.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Jersey
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    2,512
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    Default

    What happened was exactly what the other lineman told the injured lineman, he leaned back into the phase. He was lucky that the hardware he was installing on the wood was only wood and not fully ground potential. I've worked plenty wet to the bone, worked in ripping snow storms and downpours, never an " inductive flash" in those conditions. He had an entrance wound on his shoulder the size of a pencil eraser...

    But I've made the same mistake as the lineman in the example, backed into an uncover phase and got rapped real good..... The key here is slow the fuck down, what's the rush anyway? Cover everything in reach and take your time.
    "It is not the critic who counts:The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena" Teddy Roosevelt

  4. #4

    Default drip

    I agree on the cover.

    But, if he was under it, and still under it right after, I wonder if it just flashed over on a big drip of water and snow from the phase..

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    New York, Long Island
    Posts
    343

    Default

    Without being there it's tough to really say what happened. The burns do seem minor for a contact in those conditions. Almost sounds like something tracked. Either way, He was lucky, It wasn't his day !!
    "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

  6. #6

    Default stirrups

    I for one can tell you from past experience of rubber gloving and you come across one of those stirrups crimped on the line,just slide the hose over it,let it stick out of the hose you wont forget it right? WRONG,1st things first i cut them off.No need for that blanket just get rid of it slide your hose over it and put one of the new screw on type ones back on.Chances are it probably needs redone anyway location is not perfect because the pole was leaning or something or maybe you wanted to face the cutout in a different way.Remember thou if you dont get rid of it you have to wrap it or your just taking a chance that your going to remember it or see it.At night chances are you will do both,forget about it and not see it.Huge mistake!
    Birdog37: "Remember we're all on a journey in life, the only difference is, some people know it and some people don't."

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    Ontario, Canada
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    1,012

    Default

    A fella does have to remember that in damp weather we have to increase our clearances.

  8. #8

    Default

    Could this have possibly been something unexpected like a small spider on the phase dropping down on web and contacting the linemans shoulder? In wet conditions it could have passed a high enough current to cause an entry and exit wound. Even if the bare web alone wasn't enough to pass sustained current, it could have created a brief ionised trail for current flow until it dispersed.

    Just a thought. But a viable one.
    Portable defibrillators were first invented to save the lives of linemen. Where's yours?

    www.bigclive.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Ontario Canada
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BigClive View Post
    Could this have possibly been something unexpected like a small spider on the phase dropping down on web and contacting the linemans shoulder? In wet conditions it could have passed a high enough current to cause an entry and exit wound. Even if the bare web alone wasn't enough to pass sustained current, it could have created a brief ionised trail for current flow until it dispersed.

    Just a thought. But a viable one.
    Your not serious

  10. #10

    Default

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    Quote Originally Posted by lewy View Post
    Your not serious
    Well here's a situation where someone is adamant that they were below the phase, but something has caused the passage of current over a distance onto their shoulder. Do you think that somehow an inexplicable high voltage transient could even cause passage of current over a distance onto a shoulder as opposed to the head? Or do you think there was a conductive trail that physically bridged the phase to his shoulder.

    Even a microscopic (invisible) conductive trailing filament of organic material can pass enough current at high voltage to initiate a sustained conductive path for high current, especially when it is wet.

    So something as seemingly innocent as a strand of spider web or some other naturally occurring fibre could have played a part.

    Or maybe he did lean back into the phase and then tried to cover up his error.

    Part of the training for railway workers in the UK is to know that there was a trend for kids to throw the tape out of cassette/video tapes over the 25kV lines from bridges because when it bridged the line to ground it made a bang. But sometimes it didn't all make contact with the rails, so you ended up with the situation where a worker walking along the rails (particularly at night) could make contact with this near-invisible ribbon coated in conductive oxide and pass significant and potentially fatal levels of current. The material itself doesn't need to pass a lot of current. Once an arc has been initiated the ionised air will take over.
    Portable defibrillators were first invented to save the lives of linemen. Where's yours?

    www.bigclive.com

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