when a crane touches a power line

[Legdoc]

What about the marshmallows?

[bobcat ron]

God awful noise that arcing makes.

[95zIV]

We just went through this just last friday actually. I copied a link to a article I found about it. But as it was explained to me shuffling is the safest if you must get off a vehicle. By hopping you take that much more of a chance of stumbling and having to take a step, if that happens you run the chance of shortening your lifespan to just the next few seconds.

http://www.dom.com/news/downed_lines.jsp

[digger242j]

We just went through this just last friday actually. I copied a link to a article I found about it. But as it was explained to me shuffling is the safest if you must get off a vehicle. By hopping you take that much more of a chance of stumbling and having to take a step, if that happens you run the chance of shortening your lifespan to just the next few seconds.

http://www.dom.com/news/downed_lines.jsp

I beg to differ.

As it's been explained to me, there's a possibility that the vehicle is "charged". If you step off the vehicle, you can become the contact point between the ground and the vehicle. That's why you jump--you never want to be in contact with both the vehicle and the ground at the same time. (Perhaps you meant that you should shuffle rather than hop once you are off the vehicle, but I didn't read it that way, and I think the distinction is important.)

As far as the shuffling, this thread is the first I'd ever heard that, but I suppose it makes sense.

[95zIV]

Digger,

I guess I should have made that distinction. I meant after you are on the ground shuffling seems the safer bet. I thought about adding this quote when I wrote that post but I didn't mabye this will clear things up.

This is a quote from Countryboy.

Tacodriver, I agree with most of what you have said except the shuffling. The less you are in contact with the ground the better, hence the continued jumping.

Sorry for the confusion.

[digger242j]

I guess I should have made that distinction. I meant after you are on the ground shuffling seems the safer bet.

Ok, then we're all on the same page with respect to the importance of NOT being in contact with the vehicle and the ground at the same time. That's a really important point, and I wanted to be sure we left no room for confusion.

[WITJR_49]

I once had a friend of mine that worked at the plant with me. Her husband ran over a power line in this dump truck. He got out of his truck and got his self in between his truck and the power line. Was killed instantly!! So guys be careful around those power lines. Call 911 when you need help
Thanks for all the help form this site
Witgray

[digger242j]

As long as we're on the subject, this would be a good time to remember that there are electric lines undeground too. Having your bucket in contact with one when you step off the machine could ruin your day.

[Big Iron]

I've never hit one either, but a possible cause to being unable to swing is meabe when they hit the line it might fry all the electrical in the machine and kill the engine or shutdown any electric over hydr. functions. From the looks of that one it melted all fuel and hydr. lines really quick All I know is I don't want to ever have to try!
I would guess that something like that could be the orgin of the old saying "look up and live!"

[Bentworker2]

I've seen several training videos on power line contact and they say to stay put, but if you have to leave jump as for as you can then hop like a bunny or shuffle your feet on the ground with real short steps. That way you don't get in two different voltage areas.
I've never hit a power line with a crane but what has me puzzled by all of these videos I've seen is why didn't the operator just swing away. I don't care if the wire welded itself to the line I'd be breaking off power poles for a half mile to get it away from there.

The most important thing is to not make contact between the equipment and the ground. It is poor practice to lean against, loiter around or even get something out of a bin while a crane is operating around power lines.

The second most important thing is if you have to leave the equipment jump as far as you can (without falling over), then keep your feet close together. The risk is that the difference in potential between your feet (voltage) could be enough to kill you. Whenever a piece of equipment makes contact with an energized power line it and the ground that the outriggers and tires are touching become energized to whatever the line to ground voltage is (2,400-34,000+volts is common, higher for transmission). The voltage that the earth is energized to decreases exponentially as you move away from the point of contact. Anyway, the way it works is if you take a 4 foot stride away from an outrigger the difference in voltage between your two feet could be 1,000 volts, but if you took 1 foot step the voltage would only be 300 or so. That can make the difference between you walking away unscathed because of the insulating value of your boots, or death. So shuffle or take small steps if you are ever around an electrical contact. Also, asphalt is actually a pretty good insulator, so if you have a choice jump onto blacktop instead of dirt.

[Reuben]

Here's an idea;dont get in trouble with electric in the first place.Is is so dang important to always always pay attention to your environment. Granted things happen.The township replaced the bridge going over to our shop last winter and it raised the road about 18-20 inches.I have hauled equipment over that bridge 100's of times.The first hot day of the year I went over the bridge hauling a excavator the same way I have for years and right on the bridge I snagged a tv cable. (wire wrapped with 5/8th cable) That pulled two poles over and the electric wires on top of the poles fell right on our excavator.I was baffles as to how this happened as I had never had any problem before.( I was legal height) After they fixed everything up we measured the line dang near every day at different temps.Believe it or not,from a temp of 55 in the morning to 84 in the afternoon that wire would sag anywhere from 8-13 inches. We were really blown away by that.I imagined they sagged in the heat but I never thought that much. The only thing that happened to our equipment was the chrome was blown off of the cylinder where the wire fell on it. It was nice to have the knowledge to know how to safely exit the truck though.

[Cowboy Billy]

While I do not know what the current best way to get out is. My Grandpa told me after jumping shuffle away not moving you feet more than about six inches at a time. He was a lineman and when he retired about 1980 he was foreman for 12 crews.

Ruben: Grandpa also said when a line was shorted out it could sag several feet. He also hated working in detroit. Lines were tied together and backfeed and could be hot on both sides.

In the 90's I was running a soil sampling rig. The underground line was mismarked as being on the other side of the road. We ended up driving a sampling spoon through a concrete box and power line. There was nothing ti indicate that we did until we pulled it out. Then it made a loud humm and a puff of smoke. When we got the sample spoon out the end was melted of. The spoon was on the end of a steel 1 1/2 inch drill rod. With a metal 140lb drop hammer run with a cat head and 1 1/4 inch rope. Luckily no one was hurt.

Billy

[ke6gwf]

I drove past this a couple of weeks ago in Napa CA.

Picture sucks due to distance, darkness and camera operator (me), but you can see the truck just after they shut the sparks off and he backed up.
The phone lines are hanging down over the cab marker lights (3 levels worth), snapped pole is by the rear of the bed, leaning to the left and the grass fire is below the back of the cab. (there's 2 sections of handrail in the fore-ground, 1 at axle level and 1 going over the hood)

When I first got there sparks and smoke were still coming from the truck, the phone line and the ground were the high voltage (probably 12,000 volts) wire draped down.
He had dumped broken concrete from a night city Stimulus job and then pulled forward catching the phone lines, breaking a pole and causing wires blocks away to arc as well as dropping 1-2 wires on himself.
The picture is just after they killed the power and had him back out of the wires. (I think he had gotten out of the truck while the wires were still hot)

The "funny" thing is his bed wouldn't go down any further. It would go up and lower back to that spot, but not below.
I am a mechanic and currently driving dump truck in very similar line of work including a lot of night work and I am paranoid about catching lines, so I thought about going over and trying to help him get the bed down, but it looked like the bottom sections of the lift cylinder had welded internally, and I couldn't do much (with what I had in my Jeep) to help that! (maybe hook a couple of chains to the front corners of the bed, and lay them out on the ground and drive the rear tires onto them to make a crude winch. If the weld was too good though, it might blow the cylinder apart and make a big mess, so I drove home!)



Dog has 2 Coons treed right outside, so I got to help them escape if I want any quiet... Anybody need a Coonskin cap? Seen enough dead coons on the roads the last couple of weeks, don't need to make any more...
Ben~

[utility1979]

Power lines are bad news.. My father got popped by one a few years back. while installing street lights, working over head in a bucket truck. He survived got burned up pretty good.
the only thing that saved him was the fact that when the power lines arced out, it ruined the hydraulics in the truck so it immediately dropped to the ground. He was about twelve feet from the lines. Never made contact.

[Puffie40]

I believe this is the video mentioned in the OP

YouTube - Crane hits power line