20.03.2024

Shock burns

A telecoms technician was badly burnt on Monday while working from a vehicle mounted platform/ bucket truck in Elwood, Utah, due north of Salt Lake City.

The man, 21, was installing a fibre optic cable along telegraph poles - which also carried power lines - on a rural road, on the outskirts of town, and clearly got too close to the power line.

He was taken to a local hospital but then airlifted to a Salt Lake City burn centre with very serious burns. The local sheriff said: "The cable he was holding got charged, either the power line arced to it, or it touched the power line and entered through his palms. The injured man suffered third-degree burns on his hands and a burn on his right hip where the power exited.”
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Vertikal Comment

The odd thing here is just how predictable an incident such as this is. He works for a telecoms supplier or contractor who must know that stringing cables to the same poles as a live power line guarantees that the employee will be closer to the power lines than any minimum recommendations. Either the lines should have been shut down, OR a fully insulated platform used.

It looks a case of cost versus taking a risk! This is the second such case in the USA in a week, in which two young men have suffered major life changing injuries in what is a very avoidable incident.
See Walking away from major electric shock