Sad news from the tree industry| worker electrocuted

DBS

Video is on right side of page let the commercial play then news story coverage will begin.


Tree Trimmer Electrocuted

-Daryl

__________________
Stihl MS 200T
Stihl MS 361

Steve Tipton

Very sad, I feel for his family and co workers

mdvaden

Sounds like the unexpected for him.

I don't know "Jack" about electrical line proximity work to comment.

It reminds me of how previous Portland company "Pruett Tree Service" sent a crew out in a storm to work on power lines like 9 years ago. Worker got killed. I'd say to hell with the storm - let the wind's die, we don't need the income that bad.

Odds are that this new story company's situation wasn't similar.

Sean Freeman

Thats terrible my thoughts go out to his family friends and workmates.

atula

This is indeed very sad...I feel for the family...
We should all thank people like Peter who risk there lives everyday, just to make our lives more safe and secure....

treefeller

My condolences to the parents.

Eric Frei

Very sad.

Apparently the boom was insulated but booms are only insulated on the last stick to the bucket. So if the lower boom contacts truck is live.

Also, I was hunting around on the net and discovered many buckets are insulated ... as in the bucket only. So again in that instance the truck is live.

This also shows what "step potential" is all about. As the ground around the truck is energized and that "voltage" decreases the further you get from the truck due to resistance in the soil it means if you walk away where one foot is placed could be 10Kv and where your next step is could be 5Kv and hence you bridge the gap for electricity to pass through you rather than the ground. Training says hop away or two feet together shuffle.

I doubt the man had a chance, just copped the full load especially if he was touching the truck.

Seems the "trick" for insulated boom trucks is to insulate where the boom meets the chasis. Also I have been thinking that like grounding lines that perhaps the trucks need to drive in a grounding rod somehow say right beneath the truck so if energized the current is grounded away from the outriggers and tyres.

Sad loss, condolences to the family, and there's too many of these which means the current towers need to be improved upon.

Of course, there's limits, like how much voltage can insulation keep away ... wires go up to 330Kv here outback but they tend to clear fell everything around so there's a 100m wide corridor.

__________________