There is a school of thought over here in New Zealand that is really starting to annoy the Line Mechanics here.
Generally, if you are required to do a call-out at night, you would normally have an extra Line Mechanic as a Safety Observer.
In order to cut down on costs, the company that I work for, has said that after the 1st of June, a Safety Observer will not be responded to call-outs, be it day or night.
The role of the Safety Observer, is merely to make sure that work is done safely and we are in direct radio contact with them all the time that we are near live lines.
This could come to a Strike situation, as no-one(that I have spoken to)wants to jeopardise thier own safety, considering that we have to "work Hot", this is stipulated by the same company that is making us work w/o a Safety Observer.
And around voltages like 3.3-33kV, you need someone to watch your back!!.
What are your thoughts on this?.
Is this fair?.

OK Trumpy, "I'l bite", and play devils advocate.
"Watch your back for what?"
OSHA Professor

Trumpy,
As the safety guy at work I agree with you. It always helps to have another set of eyes looking at something. They might see something that is out of your eye sight, or that you cannot see. Also in case something happens there is someone there to help out.

For example I wrote a procedure on how to use the eye wash and emergency shower. I wrote in there that if someone has to use this that someone needs to be there with the person. One to help if needed and two for moral support.

Unfortunately just last week we had someone get acid in their eye. There was an eye wash station 15' away and a clear path to it. This eye wash, while do close, is actually in the fittings department. Since this employee works in the tube department, he was more familiar with the layout of that department. His first instinct was to go to the eye wash station in the tube department. Over 100' away and with several obsticales he had to go around. This is just an example of how someone does not think logically when they are injured.

If I might make a suggestion, maybe you could offer to management that the safety observer does not have to be a line mechanic. Maybe someone who is paid cheaper, but is trained in first aid. This may not be the ideal situation, but you would still have your safety observer, and management would save money.
Scott

Trumpy,

It sounds to me like the line Mechanics are going to be required to work live primaries solo. If so, that really is a dangerous situation. At the utility I work at, all primary work is done with at least two qualified first class Lineman. This is policy at most US utilities and it became policy due to safety concerns. Working live primary in daylight can be difficult, but working by flood lights or spot lights at night is much more difficult & the hazards are easier to miss.

I would hope that the utilities would reconsider, based upon the safety risks.

OSHA Professor,
What I meant was, you need someone to watch your back, in case there is an inadvertent contact with a line by the EWP or if the guys do something that may jeopadise thier own safety.
At the voltages that we work with, a job can quickly become a disaster, if the guy down on the ground is not keeping an eye on us!.

ameterguy,
We've always worked live Primaries on voltages up to 22kV, at least during the day.
During these procedures, we use full cover-up gear and on the higher end of the scale flashsuits and EN 60903 gloves and Gauntlets.
But, you add lack of light, sometimes rain, hail and even snow and you have the potential for a really bad accident to occur.
People just want thier power back on, they don't care what sort of weather you have to go out in to accomplish this.

Guys,
Also, I would like to add, that at no time over here, is there fewer than 1 person on an EWP, with a max. of 2.
There was a thread last year about outages in the UK, can't remember the title, but, don't be too hard on us Lineys, we work in ALL sorts of inclement weather!.

I'd expect the likelyhood of emergency work to be inversly proportional to the weather: The worse the weather, the more service calls?

Where I live the PoCo's are reluctant to spend the money on clearing the trees on the side of the MV lines. This means that each year when the autumn and winter storms rage, the lines come down and an army of linesmen has to be sent out. Penny wise, pound foolish

( This photo says it all)

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 05-12-2003).]

C-H,
We must have the same people running our PoCo!.
At one time we even had a dedicated Tree Crew, that were properly trained in pruning and felling trees near our HV and EHV lines.
They were disbanded about three years ago, never saw a tree that they couldn't tame!.

Guys,

Having "a guy on the ground keeping an eye on you" is the wrong mindset.
How about sttel erectors wanting an ambulance on site in case someone falls (10 stories)? Would'nt fall protection be a better approach?

Why would you contact a line?
Are you maintaining MAD's (minimum approach distances)?
Are you wearing proer PPE? Gloves, Sleeves? How about adding line hose, or blankets? Could this job be done with hot stics?
Why would other trained professionals jeapordize your safety? Has a pre job briefing been conducted? Do all the exerienced trained professionals know their respective roles?
If the unexpected arises during the job does the crew stop, reassess, and re-brief?

Personally, I doubt if having anyone standing by in the event of a 22kV line contact would be of any benefit.
I still fail to see the benefit of an observer, absent safe work practices, proper equipment, PPE, etc. In other words fix whats broke, don't bring in someone to watch it.
OSHA Professor

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!!.