E-Mail I received today, from one of the principals of the company (names are a matter of public record):

"This is a really sad story. Lynn was a crane electrician who came to Jensen Precast regularly to repair our cranes. Last Friday he was working on one of our bridge cranes, he was sitting on a bucket in front of an open electrical control panel. He grabbed a hot wire with his pliers, the insulation on his pliers failed.

"He was dripping wet with sweat. The 110v pushed him back into the guard rails. They couldn’t get him free before the current killed him or caused him to have a heart attack. This is the only fatality in Jensen Precast plant history."

Yup ... even 'simple 120' in those itsy-bitsy control wires can do it. The funeral is tomorrow.

Harmless??!!,
This could be why companies like Klein state in their tool catalouges, when advertising things like linemans pliers:

"This is not an insulated tool"

Depending upon the plastic insulation on the handles of your handtools, against electric shock, is just silly IMO, especially with sweaty hands.

Mike is right, those plastic dipped handles are merely "cushion grips", not insulating grips. Any safety program should tell the students that.

I'd bet that the plastic coating was damaged earlier, and then "repaired" with some electrical tape. Sad, and an illustration of the need for safety training, and a willingness for employees to actually follow said training, chalk this one up to "failure to de-energise equiptment" with a "failure to maintain tools" kicker

-Will