Guy's, I was sent this e-mail by a female lawyer explaining this accident and she want's help with representation in Court.
Obviously I cannot attend court in the US, but, what do you think of the circumstances of this accident?.

Guys, I'm not too sure what to think of this.
Your input would be gratefully recieved!!.

Oh and by the way I have emailled her back and told her that I come from New Zealand and that I would be happy to help on Technical matters only.
I already told her that this accident sounds dodgy.

It's sounds very dodgy indeed. A guy was actually sitting on top of the apparatus and with his bare hands lifting cables to enable it to pass underneath??!!!

It sounds as though the load was way too high for the roads in question.

Paul,
What I cannot fathom is the reference to the fibre-optic cable?.
Because as we all know, fibre-optic cable should not conduct Electricity at any voltage.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 01-23-2004).]

I guess the fiber either had a metal outer cladding or a metal messenger. It sounds like it either was grounded and he was hot, or it was hot itself. In either case, anyone touching wiring without proper PPE or determining it is dead (and grounding it) is nuts.

n1ist,
You're darn right bud!.
I never thought of the Messenger angle, are these usually bare in the US?.

Maybe he just thought it was a fiber optic cable and it was actually an energized power cable?

Paul, I was thinking on the same lines. This is mighty high voltage to be anywhere near a Fiber Optic cable.

There would be a separation of "feet" between the fiber and a conductor that could impose this voltage.

Roger

Even if the cable was live or whatever.
I really can't help but think that there is a real Safety violation here.
For a start, (using NZ laws), you would not be allowed to ride a moving vehicle in a position like this, wires or no wires!.
Secondly, to move a vehicle under wires like this sounds pretty stupid, considering that most PoCo's will sleeve or de-energise lines if asked, often for free, in the interests of safety and to prevent damage to thier lines.
Thirdly, it's quite apparent that this company has very little in the way of Safety procedures and practically no training for Electrical hazards.
Lastly,
Telescopic Fibreglass Hot Sticks could have been used to raise the lines above the vehicle,from the ground, but no, we want to do it the cheap and nasty way!.
Seems to me that there is also a distinct lack of communication between the firm and thier employees, who the hell would get up on a metal boom and do this sort of thing, gloves or no gloves?.
{Message edited to add missing part of a sentence}

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 01-23-2004).]

Roger,
The reason that occurred to me is that I've come across many people who cannot tell the difference between 240/415V lines and 11kV lines, or even between power lines and telephone wires. With that in mind, I can easily see somebody being unable to tell fiber optic from power lines, and bearing in mind the actions of this guy, I think it's safe to say he knows very little about electrical matters in general.

Trumpy,
Unless there is some other evidence as to what happened, or even a photo of the "offending" cable, I don't see there's much you can do to help. Without seeing the actual set-up we can only guess as to what happened.


I'm not sure, but the first part of this seems to imply that the guy survived. If that's the case, the legal team needs to get its terminology straightened out before taking it to court anyway; electrocuted means "killed by electricity."

Paul,
Let's put it this way, I'm looking at the whole case rather dubiously, considering that the guy lived through it, it sounds like a legal challenge to his employers, what do you folk in the US reckon?.
If I was a presiding judge in this this case I would want REAL pictures of the offending wire and also the report from the EMS team that responded and any PoCo Crew man that responded and also the police report that was filed by the officer(s) sent to the scene by the EMS team.
Until then, there is no case!.

Paul, actually that was what I meant too, only didn't word it very well. (I couldn't write a novel )

I would think that what they are referring to as a Fiber Optic line was indeed a voltage caring conductor.

It would be a far shot that with the designed separation a fiber could become energized, (not impossible but unlikely) hence the reason I think it was misidentified.

But now you've got me wondering, was he just shocked with a decent static charge or was he "electrocuted"?

Roger

Trumpy (et all) check out January's issue of Electrical Contractor. A Mr. Joe O'Connor details acccident investigations/reports there (pg 57)

at the artilces end, Mr. O'Connor claims he can e-mail report samples via~

joconnor@intecweb.com


~S~

I would think it would be pretty unusual for a fiber-optic line to be overhead anyways.

All of them I've ever seen were underground.

Russell