They were coworkers with me and working on the line with me one pole down. No sense in hanging 10 sets of grounds for one Company to work on a line togèther like that.
While workin the ice storm in the topeka area i was slapped in the face with Total disregaurd for my saftèy and my co workers.
We were working on a single phase tap behind a recloser and another crew working with us "made the visual opening, tested and grounded the line." so i thought.
Upon completion i was asked to remòve our grounds and when i got there i found there was no visible opening and the grounds were not even finger tight.
Needless to say i was pissed that i cant trust my co-workers to do the job right and went to the head saftèy man heated. I may have been a little too heated but its my saftèy and my co-workers at risk. When i went to the saftèy supervisor his responce was "whats it matter? Your quitting anyways." i just said **** it and walked away. Tried to warn others but didnt do much good. Thats why im on a Grey hoünd with my drag bag heading home.
Im tired of unsafè work practices like this and testing a line prior to grounding it with pliers. Yeah thats smart! Plus all the 1st and 2nd year apes working primary.
They were coworkers with me and working on the line with me one pole down. No sense in hanging 10 sets of grounds for one Company to work on a line togèther like that.
When multiple crews are working togèther as one you should be able to trust each other. I dont trust anyone with my saftèy anymore. From now on im grounding everything personally.
Ed,
why the need or compulsion to speak the the safety rep? These were crews YOU were working with. If you had a problem with the way the grounds were hung, why didnt you jump ugly with the crew who was supposed to open and ground? I must be missing something......
"It is not the critic who counts:The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena" Teddy Roosevelt
Our rule has always been the grounds need to be within sight, if that takes more than one set so be it, if everyone can see one set then that works. Also anytime I send crews away the last thing I tell them is "you work by OUR rules, if the other company doesn't like it- leave." We have had a few companes grumble that we were taking too long but they haven't sent us away and they haven't stopped my men from working by our rules.
We were working together multiple crews working on the same line as one since we all work at the same company. I agree about the grounds being in sight. The set in question was within my sight and the other end was grounded as well but was out of sight cause the wire was down for about a mile.
Normally I would jump on the crews ass that did it but no one would fess up to it and everyones response is "Well thats the way we were taught to do it." So I went to the saftey supervisor who is also the apprenticeship teacher.
All in all Im happy to be out of there they got one of my buddies killed back in 2001 when they had 2 c-class apes running a truck all alone. I had thought they changed their ways and I went to work for them but its slowly going back to their old ways and I hate to say it but I foresee another funeral in the companies near future.
Hey ED,
I am glad to hear you are safe! You learned a valuable lesson from this incident! Always establish your own "Equal Potential Zone", just like the regulations state! That way you trust yourself, and you don't have to hope your co-workers know what to do. Don't trust anyone with your safety except yourself!
US & CA Tramp
I just hope I find safer companies out west in Tucson. I'm going to the local as soon as I get there. Gettin kinda tired of the scab contractor bit. Not that all contractors are bad I'm just not having luck with them.
Ed, I'm glad to hear you are OK. There are a few things in this story that bother me though. I've been a district lineman for a little while now. I have worked in the same district for 12 years and I know it quite well. That being said, during a storm I still never take anything for granted. If I am working a line during a storm I will ask until I get an answer that I am satisfied with about who tagged and grounded(usually it will be me). If I cant get an answer I will check for myself. If there are a few first year guys around, we keep an eye on them. To listen to you it sounds like they are responsible for your safety. Storms are always more dangerous, it is up to you to be at the top of your game. Wear your rubber gloves always and ground for yourself if you think you need it. Oh, one more thing.. I prefer to test distribution lines with a pair of plyers. I've never had the batteries go dead and I have never had a false test. Of course I am suppose to use the Salisbury tester which has to be at a 90 degree angle to give a proper test and which will test hot on the neutral, the ground, the pole, the guy...etc if it isnt at a 90. I hope that doesnt make me an ape.
The guy that grounded the line I trusted. We have worked together going on 8 years. But he either had a lazy moment which I will not tolerate, or just screwed up. The outfit I was working for only had one journeyman line man when they hired me couple years ago and that was me. Everyone one else was apes and non-working forman. Still with no seasoned help they pushed these apes through a class and this year theres 4 journeymen plus me but the other 4 scare me with how little they know and the position they were put in. Now dont get me wrong these are some great hands but they still have alot to learn.
As for the testing with pliers. Try to fuzz 4kv next to a busy highway and tell me if your gonna trust not hearing anything.. We used to use the Salisbury testers but had trouble with them picking up static from everything. Now we use chance testers if your lucky you got the small one only bout a foot long with the dial and test button for your finger stick. If you werent lucky like me you got phasing sticks both a pain to store and bulky to work with they do work great. You should always test on a known energized line before testing the line your working on..