Author -

we were working on a section of 750 kcmil between 2 wind towers, the task at hand was to isolate between each transformer, put dummy plugs in the far end, hook up a Partical discharge tester. its a piece of equipment that looks down the piece of cable and can see if splices are good or if elbows and T bodies are good, it sees things that we cant and makes us do a much cleaner job, it also does a DC hipot test on the cable to see if it holds at 50kv. anyway i hooked up to what was labled as the red west phase, tested it then moved on the the white then the blue, as i am hooking up to the blue phase i sent a lineman down to the next transformer, to the east, remember i am on the west phase, i send him down to start getting it ready for that section of cable. just as he pulles the blue phase off the bushing and starts to put dummy plugs in he dropped the cable to grab his speed wrenchs as i throw DC hipot test on the line, the cable resting just a few feet from his back begins to make a funny noise. he couldnt move fast enough and just as he got away from it, it flashed over to ground, burnt the t bodie and made a hell of a mark inside the transformer. we traced it back to the trench crew that was labeling cables as they moved from trench to trench. it all could have been avoided if we would have double checked and rang the cables out, never trust anybodys work unless you are there to watch it take place but then still double check, you just never know. nobody was hurt, we were all a little shook up.