Two rental company technicians died last week in Calatayud, Spain while carrying out repairs to a work platform below overhead power lines.
We have also heard of two other men losing their lives on Sunday after contacting power lines in Ecuador.
Getting back to the tragedy in Spain, which occurred last Wednesday – July 30th, the men both were working for the local Kiloutou branch, and had been repairing an aerial work platform, which we are told was a small truck mounted lift, that was being used for pruning trees alongside a mid-tension power line on a rural track alongside an industrial estate. It seems they had raised the boom while testing it, but made contact with the power lines and caught the full force of the electricity as it ran to earth.
A photo we received, taken from the top of the track which apparently shows the proximity of the trees to the power lines
The emergency services arrived within minutes, but its too late for both men. The Labour Inspectorate and the Aragon Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (ISSLA) and the Calatayud Judicial Police have been investigating the causes of incident.
The family of one of the men, Adrián Llorente, 42, said: "We are issuing this brief statement to express our sincere gratitude to all those who have been with us during these very tough days in the face of this terrible and unexpected loss of a good person, a great husband and, above all, the best father."
Vertikal Comment
This is not the first time we have reported on service engineers losing their lives or being seriously injured while working on a machine under power lines, it usually occurs when the machine is functioning again and they raise the platform to test it forgetting the power lines. It might be helpful if technicians were alerted to theis very specific danger? Alwasy try and move the machine away from power lines if possible, on once it seems to be working.
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