15.09.2011
Utility worker electrocuted.
A Verizon technician installing high-speed-Internet cables in Brooklyn, New York, was electrocuted on Wednesday after he accidentally touched a hidden power line.
Douglas La Lima, 37, was using a utility truck, installing the overhead cables when a Con Edison power line hidden in a tree touched the back of his neck causing him to catch fire.
Two co-workers in the truck mounted lift’s cab quickly lowered the boom to the ground and helped extinguish flames.
Fire-fighters were quickly on the scene, but La Lima, a 15 year Verizon veteran, died a short time later.
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The utility truck after the accident
Con Edison said that electrical workers were at the scene trying to determine how La Lima came into contact with the electrical wires.
john murphy
it is always sad when somebody in our industry is injured or even killed,but may i ask a question.there seems to be alot of incidents of very preventable incidents in the u.s.a.is vertikal a u.s based site or are there standards of training and health and safety nowhere near the standard of the u.k.