(With apologies to the moderators for the threadjack):

edit: e57 and I were posting at the same time [Linked Image]

My understanding is that the mast controls are on the outside of the van,(on a pendant cable as well as directly on the van chassis), with the idea being so the engineer can see where the mast is going. No controls in the van. (Maybe an "Emergency Lower" button would be a good idea?)

After looking in my archive on this incident, I found out that even though the engineer had stopped raising the mast when she (not a misprint) realized it was about to contact the line, she let go of the control. But the mast being pneumatic(hydraulic?) continued up for a few feet, enough to hit the line.

There was a lot of irony in this incident namely:

They had moved the van onto the sidewalk from the road, as they thought the mast would hit the lines, not realizing that the slope of the sidewalk tilted the van toward the road;

Even if the van had been level, the mast would've still been too close (well within flashover distance according to the POCO lineman I spoke with);

They were directly across from a famous cemetary, covering a story on child safety;

A few weeks prior, another crew in a different state was killed raising their mast into 110kV transmission lines in a rural area. [Linked Image]

Maybe a new topic is in order here? [Linked Image]



[This message has been edited by mxslick (edited 07-11-2005).]

Stupid should be painful.