Dumptruck into power lines
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~
