ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion Safety Observers

so much for the 'buddy' system.......

Trumpy,
I think the U.K. thread you're thinking of is this one . I certainly don't envy the guys who have to turn out of bed at 2a.m. on a wet, cold, miserable night and go trekking across a muddy field to climb a pole and start working live on 11 or 33kV lines.

As you know, I'm not an outside HV line guy, but even when just working on my bench at home I'm aware of the risks of not having someone else present. It would be nice to always have someone around, "just in case," but living alone I don't have that luxury.

A lot of the vintage valve/tube equipment on which I work has supplies capable of delivering anything from 200 to a few kV at several hundred milliamps or more. I take what precautions I can, and am pleased to say that I've received no shocks from any of this sort of gear for many, many years!

OHA Professor,
I agree with your comments regarding the Safety Observer.
But, with humans being humans, something is always bound to go wrong if the chance arises.
All you need is a tool or a wire to slip(which can happen when it's pouring with rain) and you suddenly have a disaster on your hands.
This extra Line Mechanic may be needed down below the Hydraulics on the EWP malfunction.
As rare as this is, there is a first time for everything.

Sometimes it helps to have somone to bounce ideas off of. On my first job I cannot tell you how many times I used to walk into my bosses office, describe a problem, find the answer to the problem without him saying a thing and walk out. It just helped to talk it out and know that there was a second opinion.

Every situation is unique. So the second person can say, "Hey watch out for ______ that you cannot see from up there"

Plus if something unfortunate does happen you have someone there to take care of the injured person.

When I ran the maint. department I implemented a preventive maintenance program. It started to be a hard sell because I realized that it is hard to prove what you prevent.

I read an interesting article about this. Before a PM program, your days go fast, you run around and put out fires(meaning machines go down), you feel needed and you look like a hero. However after you implement a PM system, things break down less often. So your day goes slower and you do not look like such a hero. However your real job is to prevent fires. I feel that the safety observer is there to prevent fires.

I will now step off my soap box.
Scott

Thanks for that Scott.
I was under the impression that Safety was for "Just in case"?.

Thanks Scott, That same scenario probably applies to many things that we don't usually think about.

Bill

Personally,
I have never contacted an HV line(touch wood!), this is probably because I am careful, but, this sort of accident is always in the back of my mind when doing Glove and Barrier Work.
You can only have so many covers on the lines and then they start to get in your way during your normal course of work.
The biggest problem I feel with regards to Live work at HV levels is when you are mucking around with live tails to DDO fuses and Transformers, being stranded, they have a will of thier own, this causes the majority of Live line accidents.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 05-25-2003).]

One thing to consider when working alone is not the advantage of another person helping you work safely. In my opinion thats hog wash; 99% of the unsafe acts I have seen in my career were right in front of supervisors and co-workers! With that said i do feel that when working with electricity it should be a two man job; after all who is going to start CPR on you if you are electrocuted. Having two people there, withone of them out of harms way, is a good idea in case there is an accident, not to prevent one. I wish more people would speak up when they see things unsafe, but right now, too many heads just turn and walk away.

Bryan Haywood www.SAFTENG.net

I went out tonight and replaced a pole with the EWP and Hiab seperator(driven by a non-Line mechanic).
I had to operate both as the guy was only a driver.
This pole was knocked over by a truck that missed a corner and it carried 400/230 lines
plus 1 11kV 3 phase circuit and a 3.3kV circuit, also 3 phase.
If this is the future of Line Faults work, count me out thank you very MUCH!!.