Author -
Submitted By -Bad Assumption
There was a serious near-miss in Michigan last week. A crew was sent to locate a fault in a bad conductor at a resort. This is a 3 phase ug. The lineman pulled the elbow of the bad cable at one location and grounded. He then moved to the other end and pulled what he ASSUMED to be the other elbow for the bad cable. The lineman did not test or ground, he attempted to hook up the thumper on an energized cable. Luckily the probe arced before the barehanded lineman made contact. Do Not ASSUME. The resort had previously cut the cables when planting trees, the conductors got crossed and the tags on the elbows were not changed. The lineman assumed he had the right elbow, and he assumed the line was dead. He was nearly dead wrong. He goofed up, no-one else.