Author -
Submitted By -If It Can, I Do
In the Spring of 91 two 2 man crews went to set a 1 phase pole for a UG primary dip. We were going to set a 40' pole about 30' out of line and make it an anggle rather than build a tap to the pole. My crew leader and the lineman from the other crew were going to move the wire and me and the other crew leader were going to grunt for them. The plan was to mac out the wire and slack it enough to make the angle and then sleeve it back to sag. While we went to pull the guys teh men in the air were gonna start getting rigged for the transfer. Instead of following the plan they cut too little slack in the wire and tried to manhandle it into the angle. They also had the hoist in the middle of the angle so the body of the hoist was at the insulators. The hoist rolled off the back of the insulators, down the pole to the primary guy that I was jacking back. I wasn't wearing rubber gloves since they weren't supposed to be moving anything yet. I believe if it were not for my rubber over shoes and the grace of God I'd be dead. I spent 2 days in the Cardiac Care Unit but had not heart muscle damage, just skeletal muscle. Every muscle in my body clenched so tight it was like pulling every muscle I had at one time. Bottom line is if it can become hot I treat it like it's hot. The Co. found me to be the only one in violation of any safety rule so I got 40 hrs off to think about it.