2 workers hurt in electrical accident in Coventry
08/04/2003 Journal and projo.com staff Posted 11:56 a.m.
COVENTRY -- Two men were injured this morning while working on high-voltage electric lines, officials said. The men were upgrading electric service on Hopkins Hill Road for an Amgen plant under construction. They were moving 7,200-volt electric lines onto new utility poles. They work for Hawkeye Construction of Patchogue, N.Y., which was hired as a subcontractor by Narragansett Electric. They had been working in the area for about six months. Today was supposed to be their last day on the job. Details of the 9:35 a.m. accident are unclear, but one of the men apparently suffered first- and second-degree burns on his face, neck and arms, the Coventry police said. He was taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Another worker was taken to Kent County Hospital in Warwick. He apparently was not burned but was shaken up by the accident, which apparently involved a flash of fire. Their names were not available. It is the second serious accident involving high-voltage power lines in less than a week. On Tuesday in West Warwick, two workers were killed and a third was injured when aluminum scaffolding they were carrying came into contact with a 7,200-volt power line. Electric customers in the area today lost power for about a half hour. The accident is being investigated by the Coventry Police Department, the Hopkins Hill Fire District, OSHA and Narragansett Electric. -- With reports from Journal staff writer Meaghan Wims

Safeteng,
It sounds to me like there was a lack of Line Spreaders in this job and it also sounds like there was no cover-up gear used on the job either.
Pole Changes, as I understand them to be, are really dangerous animals, especially where you have 11kV up on top and 400V below.
You have to make sure that you have the wires as such, that they will NOT contact each other.
Everyone wears ALL of the required Line gear when this type of transfer is taking place and stay's right out of the way, should a Neutral snap or a 11kV conductor break, w/ respect to the EPN breaking, it is normally a 35mm2 wire, which carries all the load of all the houses connected to it, it is a recipe for disaster.