Always report downed lines...

[@Bobsdecline]

Hey all! Just a quick unedited video... I wanted to share this example of a hazard that the untrained eye will likely not be aware of. Be safe. #lineman #bobsdecline #dragonwear

[@ramboharrisons1917]

Use to be a lineman in very early 90’s and got in serious trouble by LG and E and Louisville police department in Louisville in late 90’s for using my extends stick, insulated boots, reflective eclectically insulated jacket and stop sign to prevent people, during a RAIN storm, for redirecting people and traffic away from the downed power lines 1000 feet behind me. LG and E tried to have me arrested for not opening the cutout when I did not and never have worked for them. LPD said me sending someone to call 911 was irresponsible and creating a public hazard by turning traffic on a very busy road away from the downed lines and using my orange extends stick stretched between 2 signs blocking the road until emergency personnel could arrive. But Kentucky law states if you don’t work for the local power company or contracted to them it is a crime to make any contact with the power companies equipment, I knew that because I had been a lineman in another Kentucky town 3 years earlier

[@ramboharrisons1917]

And yes those lines were hot and arcing on a parked unmanned vehicle

[@datboi5276]

Hey man, even though you got in trouble you acted in order to prevent others from getting hurt. Kudos to you man.

[@conraillock1299]

Sounds lg&e was intentionally trying to get people to drive into the down wires so they can not be held responsible for it

[@grant5227]

Even if fines are a possibility, who are they going to be more lenient with? The crew that calls and says we messed up and broke a pole, or the crew that has to be tracked down after the fact?

[@myself248]

This exactly. I saw a fiber outage that escalated to 3 levels of dispatch (calling in techs from neighboring states!) because nobody could find the fault, and you can't fix a fault you can't find. The OTDR said it had to be right on that pole, but there was no car crash, nothing looked like it'd hit the pole... Finally after inspecting the whole segment, one of the techs scooted the little call-for-service wraparound label, and behind it was a little hole where someone's toe-spike had gone into the fiber. The culprit had slipped the label over it to hide the damage and left the scene, turning a 2-hour outage into a 12-hour outage. He was fired. Contrast to numerous other outages I witnessed, where the culprit (sometimes yours truly) stuck around, described exactly what happened, and assisted with restoration where able. Worst consequence I ever saw there was a day spent writing reports about what happened and participation in a workshop to see if it could be prevented in the future. No lost pay, no disciplinary action whatsoever.

[@Failure_Is_An_Option]

@@myself248 That is incompetence. And if a single fiber cut is an outage that is more incompetence. You must work for Zayo or Level 3.

[@JamesTK]

@@Failure_Is_An_Optionaccidents happen. And a single fibre being cut can definitely result in an outage, especially for residential where you don't have multiple diverse paths to the subscribers as it's just not economical.

[@charliesullivan4304]

"Someone could be k-, very seriously injured.". Thanks for protecting your viewers' delicate sensibilities!😊

[@darkpixel2k]

A couple of decades ago, we pulled up on car that had smashed into a pole. We assessed the scene, and noticed wires down all over the road. The fire department started blocking off the road, and we called for the PUD. We were stunned when the undersheriff pulled up about 3 minutes later, looked at the lines, and declared "don't worry, they're just phone lines" and proceeded to manhandle them off the roadway. Fortunately he was okay, but we all stood by watching and quietly discussing what we were going to do if he dropped like a rock.

[@JimHolpuch]

It's amazing how often people assume things are "just phone lines" or "just cable lines". Those will conduct juice just fine if they are connected to enough voltage.

[@darkpixel2k]

@@JimHolpuch yup. Back in the good old days, you could tell if there was power over ethernet enabled on a network cable by touching your tongue to it. Kind of like touching your tongue to a 9-volt battery. The very last time I did that I discovered the network cable was rubbing against an electrical cable and had worn through the sheath. I got 120 volts to the tongue. That sucked. Never again.

[@edprior2821]

Electrical Engineer in BC here, but not in utility or HV work. A couple of years ago I witnessed a truck turning a corner too sharply and brought down a pole with a 3 phase 25 kV line, transformer, and traffic signal arm down into an intersection. Traffic signal arm kept the transformer from crashing onto the ground, which might have been interesting. Much sparks and noise for a while until the substation breaker tripped, re-closed, then tripped again and locked out. I called 911 and very quickly a local police officer drove up, jumped out of his car _on top of the downed wires_ and started directing traffic. I don't know if the police had confirmation the line was dead, but fortunately the fault currents were such that the neutral had wrapped itself around all three phases so I guess you could say the line was grounded. A scary situation all round. Thanks for your great videos - I've learned so much about another aspect of our electrical industry.

[@spvillano]

Many years ago, around when electrons got invented, heard a loud bang, ran outside to see a 7200 volt line dropped. It had hit a Dairy Queen building siding, which was the report we heard and was quietly steaming on the ground. No sparks, just steam and over the course of minutes, excavated a one foot by one foot hole for itself. I happily stayed on my side of the street, the boss had already called the electric company, as the Dairy Queen couldn't due to power loss to the telephone system. Did have to chase some idiots that wanted to walk up to the damned thing for a better look into eternity. Sorry, big nope, I'd consider 100 feet minimum around that to be floor is lava. I don't fear electricity, worked on HV electronics all of my life, but I do respect it.

[@liam3284]

I hope first responders get training to avoid and stay well clear of downed wires!

[@keithwalter1241]

Hi Arron, I started watching your lineman series about six weeks ago and have learned a lot. I appreciate the great job you do in covering attention to detail and your video editiing. I am retired from the Healthcare Industry in Clinical Engineering. Our team was responsible for maintaining all of the medical equipment in our hospitals. I worked for two years as an electrical assistant in a hospital back in 1974 before our Clincal Engineering Department was founded. I have an associates degree in electronics technology, and an electrical engineering diploma from a correspondance course back in the late 70's We maintained all of the hospital's electrical systems. I have enjoyed learning about power distribution which helps me understand what happens when our power goes out. We have an underground wiring system in our subdivision, and the power to the subdivision is fed from over-head right around the corner from me. Now I know what cutouts are. Best wishes, and keep safe out there!!!!!

[@heatherkohlwey8379]

That is quite the mental picture of those guys with the ladder. Trouble is one thing dead is another. Common sense isn't very common these days. Thanks for the safety reminder. Stay safe, and God bless.

[@jovetj]

Years ago I watched the road grader clip and snap the guy wire supporting the pole along the road that started the branch circuit up to my house. I just happened to be outside and just happened to be in the right spot to see the road and just happened to pause and watch the grader go by. The guy anchor was between the road and the ditch. The guy line flew up and shorted out the single phase. I called the power company right away and reported exactly what happened. Was fixed within an hour or two.

[@redsquirrelftw]

If unsure you can also call the non emergency number for the police. Or if it's actually sparking you can even call 911 if you believe it's an immediate threat to life. I work for the phone company and often times it's the police that call us to report broken poles, downed lines etc. I've seen some sparking poles before and called it in to hydro myself. Having watched this channel it's nice to be able to identify the issue so I can give them good details on what I'm seeing.

[@sharkey086]

Kind of off base, but when you said about the 2 guys on the ladder attempting to move the lines, it reminded me of something that happened to my dad. Back in the late 70s, he lived in Ohio and had a few buddies help him put up a rather tall CB antenna, mounted to a metal pole. It got windy and the antenna made contact with nearby overhead lines. The shock subsequently knocked them all off the roof and the guy on the end, whom was grounded, died. My dad still has a ton of guilt about it to this day. Things can and will happen, don't be risky.

[@James_Bowie]

Singing: "Folks are dumb where I come from, they ain't had any learnin' "

[@mikedfranklin]

Thanks for another great episode, Aaron. Your focus on safety is right on the money. I'm an Electrical Engineer but I continue to learn something new from you every time. I caught a really scary video the other day of a couple of knuckleheads replacing a pad mount transformer. No safety glasses and no gloves of any kind. It opens with one guy removing the 120/240 connections bare handed. His buddy then pulls the HV side with a stick. After watching a couple of your episodes explaining the proper ways to work on a pad mount, I was dumbfounded by what these guys were doing. Keep up the great work and enjoy your vacation!

[@justindavis1546]

I made the mistake of felling a tree that hit a power line, cutting power, and kept falling. The first thing I did was call the power company and let them know. They sent out two guys in a truck to check everything out and re-energized the wire and called it good.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

I'd hope the practice in situations like that is to deem it an accident unless there's unequivocal evidence of sabotage. Today there is more worry than before about saboteurs (aka terrorists) who act for wanton political motives, but the garden variety "stupid" isn't going to count.

[@ryan0io]

Not a lineman, but did telecom (in western Canada) for a while, including the training on how to safely go up to, but never over, the telecom right of way on poles. Always had respect for what was not that far above me when working on telecom cables. Can't imagine snapping a pole and just continuing on like nothing happened.

[@johnrtrucker]

Absolute facts! Treat every wire as if it's spicy enough to send you to the diety of your choosing and report!

[@kmagnussen1052]

Most people have little knowledge of 240vac much less 7200 vac. My father was an electrical engineer and he taught me well about high voltage. You seldom get a second chance with 7200 v. FYI: if a transformer is under maintenance and going to be disconnected it is good practice to tell the users so they can turn the power off at the main breaker. They did not tell me and reconnected a transformer hot which in slow motion actually is connected and disconnected ten or more time in short time intervals. This sends spikes through the users system and can kill sensitive equipment. Personnel experience the maintenance company had to buy me a new laser printer. I even had a surge protector but it did not save the power supply on the printer. Thanks great page it gives me the willies every time you get near the 7200 v lines. Stay safe!

[@abpsd73]

It isn't just when the lines are down, any serious contact with utility equipment should be know to the provider. One of the sites I do some maintenance at had a truck driver thump a pole pretty hard. Seemed relatively benign, a few dents in the pole and some broken asphalt around the base. Concerned me that the primary galloped pretty good, and the pole in question is wrapped with a primary to a pad mount as well as a telephone drop. The property manager was asking me if it's okay, a quick visual didn't seem to see anything critical out of place. Told the manager to contact the utility provider anyway and tell them what happened and if they could send someone out for a non-emergency call. They had a crew show up to make some repairs on the stretch of line a couple days later. I was at another site so I never got the low down on all that was wrong.

[@chris76-01]

I think people would be more willing to report things if there wasn't a threat or possibility of punishment attached 😊

[@abpsd73]

I would think they might be a touch more forgiving for someone that fesses up and calls them when they screw up, rather than the "what do you mean? that was like that when I got here" guy. Years ago when I was doing roofing, we were working in a neighborhood with 2 story houses very close together. Even with all the precautions, the neighboring house meter glass bowl got whacked and busted by some falling debris. We called the city utility department, and they sent out a crew to replace the meter. We weren't charged for it, and they were happy that someone had the decency to call it in instead of leaving a potential hazard there for someone else to encounter.

[@Clearwater420]

I do have laugh that poles that are live are dangerous when they fall , however the many concrete light poles owned by this utility are ether slowly falling over or as example in our area the concrete street light poles are cracking and splitting and rebar core corroded away .... so again power lines falling dangerous.... however our 50 year old concrete street light poles exposed rebar spailing chunks that’s ok 👌... till your 🚗 or 🏠 get hit by falling street light ... yea I have called this utility made report, and nothing.... btw the local town engineer would not give his opinion to street light because he or town would be *liable* 😂

[@nomad-1776]

I'm not a lineman and don't know all the lingo, but I recently saw a downed power line from a transformer to a house. Called it in and the police just drove on by and never stopped. The line must've recoiled backwards a bit when it snapped as it wound up laying partially in the road. I guess since it wasn't a primary they didn't feel the need to redirect people until the lineman showed up. I didn't think to check the nearest cutout.

[@dennissarver1963]

The problem here in Pa. is you can't get to talk to a person to even report a problem ! Have tried many times in the past ! Keep up the good video's !

[@LawFarin]

Then call fire, or the police. Let their dispatch make the call out to the power authority.

[@rupe53]

there's almost always a backdoor to these automated call centers. If you are prompted to press 1 for this or 2 for that, hit 0 and see if it will get an operator. If it's a voice prompt, say "speak to a representative" and give your details when they pick up the line, like a pole number or intersection.

[@3beltwesty]

With Entergy power company in the South East you get some work from home person who enters your downed wire or tree touching a live wire condition. But that may or may not get any response so better to call back again. About always the next person has a subset or no thing. So last August it too until March for them to remove a tree touching a live 7200 volt wire. The only reason is another tree fell and knocked down the entire live wire and neutral and blew the fuse and I called them since 370 ft of line down So from August to March the fuse to the single phase wire popped and caused the food in freezer to spoil. There are no local service departments anymore to dump the rotten food to get their attention. So basically service is more 3rd world. Lol

[@jamesphillips2285]

Do they have a separate emergency number?

[@NelsonBigGunP200Fan]

Very informative video. The power coming from those poles is very dangerous indeed. I think its cool, the power system but also respect it. If i see a line down im going the other way! You cannot tell if it is live and you should stay far away and urge others to do the same. Call the powr company and the police and theyll get it cleaned up and safe for the public! I had to do the same thing when a storm took a tree and a line down. People were trying to pick it up and my heart stopped. Had to just about act scary to get people to leave it alone. Never know when the auto recloser will close and energize the area making it deadly.

[@gary1anderson]

Thanks for dropping us a line video. Thanks for saying don't try to think through if a line is safe regardless what type of line it is or it's location.

[@rupe53]

Maybe "mulching" is a term used up north, but down in the northeast USA they quite often use what we call a "flail mower" to cut brush back along roads. Some of them can hang 10 feet from the side of a tractor, either fully horizontal or upright in a vertical position for stray branches. The individual flails are like metal claws and 3-4 inches long, swinging from a rotating drum at several hundred RPM. This is basically a piece of farm equipment that's been repurposed by the highway crews. That said, they can throw rocks, cans, bottles,, grab debris, or do major damage if they snag a piece of chain or steel cable. I have a hard time imagining how even a careless operator could catch an overhead guy wire that's 15+ feet in the air.... unless he hit the pole first and that brought the wire down. That said, i will repeat a story from 10 years ago while working for a generator company on storm duty.... Driving on a semi-rural side street I see an older guy with an aluminum ladder taking a branch from the roof and cleaning up limbs from his service wires. (his wife is supervising) I pull over and ask if he has a death wish, his reply was "well the power is out." I said, "yup, the utility power is out but how about that DIY neighbor with the generator that I hear?" "How about the utility crew working down the street who might get things fixed before you finish?" He proceeded to cuss me out, then his wife said "Harvey, get off the ladder!" The reality was me calling his bluff, while trying to make him understand that these things CAN happen, and he has no way to test for live wires.

[@Jehty_]

He said that the mulcher was mounted to an excavator. Wouldn't be the first time that a careless excavator operator hit a power line.

[@Strasedon]

Around these parts the mowers I've seen attached to the excavators are the rotary style like I see on the folding mowers used for the ditches.

[@RussellBooth1977]

In Australia we only seem to have a SWER (single wire earth return) system in the mountains where it does snow & for sheds or cabins which people camp at. I know about downed power lines,in my area, someone was getting chased by another person in a high speed car chase one night & the pursuant crashed into a power pole & got killed, the impact was that great that it snapped the 57 year old power pole in half & brought down the power lines,2 of phases got snapped in half as well which caused a circuit breaker to trip at the substation 20 kilometres away in 2012. The supply authority had recently replaced the nearby fuses with an high voltage air switch so that's why the circuit breaker tripped & it blacked out all our area overnight. The insulators & cross arms were replaced 27 years prior to that but the poles were erected in 1945 which was when our area first got electricity,the power lines were upgraded to that point in the early 1970's but the old power lines from 1945 were replaced in 2015 which was 1 year after a new 132/11 kV substation was commissioned in our area !

[@Renville80]

Can certainly understand the desire to avoid anyone getting hurt while working on the lines... my cousin's son used to be a lineman for a coop in the northwestern part of the US, but he left the trade after a friend of his sustained a severe injury on the job (and which ...ended the friend's career).

[@alan.macrae]

Enjoy your vacation Aaron! Just spent a week in your beautiful province. Can’t wait to get back. 👊

[@Bobsdecline]

Dang, I think you mentioned that you were passing through! We should have met up for a coffee!

[@jamesphillips2285]

for some reason I found your delivery at 2:40 funny.

[@woodardchuckleson3090]

Ain't no amount of paperwork worth dying to avoid.

[@rickgreer7203]

And in general...same with any emergency/accident that doesn't have responders onsite yet. It's shocking how often I pass something with a gaggle of observers and I'm the first report to emergency services. Even if they've already gotten reports, you might have extra or new info. (Found out the reality of this when riding when a FD friend who called in everything while out and about.) And sometimes the first onsite person(s) helping had more urgent things to deal with, not just by stander effect. And the same for power lines, rail issues, and all the like that often have direct reporting means if "probably urgent" but not "on fire".

[@dragonwear4843]

That’s a very important reminder. Stay safe out there!

[@dang48]

That is scary! The boneheads that ripped the line down could have been killed! Thanks for these videos and thank you for caring enough to give us that education.

[@unwired1281]

Looking forward to seeing the Greenlee plant. Enjoy your time away ‼️👍👊

[@AlanTheBeast100]

Hmm. Lines are underground here. But if one ever floats the surface I'll still report it!

[@44R0Ndin]

Ignorance can be lethal. Unfortunately, some people just don't know how electricity works, for them it's literally magic, but because of that, if/when they damage some power wires, they don't even have the first thought of "I'm in danger, I better be really careful about what I'm doing". They just think "Ah crap I just damaged something really expensive, let me try to make it look like I was never here" and that's the part where they get into these ridiculous situations like the guy holding up that ALUMINUM ladder (incredibly unsafe, pure luck that nobody got hurt from either a simple fall or an electrically related injury). The only way to stop this from happening is to have classes for EVERYONE yearly about how the power network works, and then 6 months later have a quiz about it that will do something like give you a tax rebate if you get it right. Nobody sane is going to put that kind of thing into law, despite the benefit, so it's going to keep happening.

[@jovetj]

Survival of the fittest is real. The lives of people who do fatally-stupid things are saved all the time, just to make the overall population more dumb.

[@liam3284]

A month ago, walking home I noticed a tram supply (DC, 700 volts) line had fallen off its pole and on to on to the insulated service drop for another building. But there was nowhere to report it.

[@Boodieman72]

I would assume if you call the emergency phone for the police / fire / medical that they would be able to contact the power company as well.

[@rupe53]

police and fire have a different contact line to utilities and ALWAYS speak to a live rep with details of the issue.

[@ritaloy8338]

Yes, down always report a power line. My cousin shot a power line on his parents property.

[@darkpixel2k]

It feels like you trailed off there. Something more to that story? ;)

[@gradyrm237]

Do a safety video on how to survive Cleveland when you get back. God's speed!

[@myself248]

Hey at least the river hasn't caught on fire lately.

[@chris76-01]

​@@myself248they must be slacking 😂

[@TheKdizzle1971]

Im glad you got these lines ooooot of the way

[@michaelgagne1911]

I wished we could've seen the work done but thanks sir 😅

[@emcsquare62]

Incredible!!

[@thomasrobinson8336]

Great video. Very well said

[@adamv5047]

I won’t tell Milwaukee that you are seeing Greenlee 😉🤣.

[@Bobsdecline]

Lol

[@VariacManiac]

This is a good call to action!

[@Wheel_Horse]

Better to be in trouble than to be DEAD!

[@chris76-01]

A delicate balance between how much you value your life and how much trouble is coming down on you😂

[@tedpogorzelski8075]

Have a great vacation

[@davidstearns9664]

excellent video👊

[@cheako91155]

Not 3 months ago a tree grounded a line and after the FD showed up our power complies guy said it wasn't their line... I don't know what the deal was, but if your policy is to start pointing fingers in these situations are we supposed to do more than call?

[@robertmailhos8159]

Electric.lines and aluminum ladders do not mix

[@jovetj]

They do if you're a flash-bang magician! ⚡

[@kens.3729]

Contractors think they’ll get away with Not Reporting Damage. There are Cameras everywhere especially in Residential Areas. Employee would be Suspended or Fired👎

[@liam3284]

It's a problem when the ones who report are fired because the process error that lead to the damage is still there, but those who mitigated the damage by reporting it are not.

[@tonytango6676]

What about that customer who rolled up the live 240 V feeder leading to their cabin? Yes he was trying to be helpful, but it was still a live Wire.

[@mikaeljiskovkristensen7861]

shouldn't the recloser or circuit breaker disconnect the fallen line and send a notice to the operator, if a powerline drops down. where i live, this is the case. But of course we are still able to report.

[@Tathanic]

Lets hope they are not responsable for the education of others

[@Brian-L]

Unalived is a whole lot more trouble than an embarassing phone call admitting you f'd up.

[@jamesashley3827]

👊

[@bertblankenstein3738]

Pretty sure transportation knows whodunnit and so follow up with that party. Lucky it was only an OHG wire and no one got hurt. Very irresponsible to sweep it under the rug.

[@Bobsdecline]

Yes for sure! Already have the company name now and met up with the owner

[@janetcohen9190]

Yes DPW transportation would readily know given there is one or more on-site inspectors monitoring contractor clearing plant growth along sides of road. Most public-works contacts are very cumbersome, restricting, work time periods coupled with permits, road flaggers, defined tasks to be done are low-bid unit priced, and often have various penalties, etc The foregoing basically urges and even forces contractor crew to make haste. Then there are logistical factors to contend with ranging from size of machinery to achieve rapid production, trees, vines, vegetation can easily obscure poles, wires, so to can sun angle to road, along with crew and machinery operator focusing of brush-chipper/mulcher operation & resulting flying vegetation. Even with spotter helping guide equipment operator can be difficult to avoid "stuff". Add in the ever increasing I.G. attitudes /void of horse-sense people in general have been cultivated into or embraced invite haste & hazards. PS- Vegetation chipper- mulcher is followed by crew members sweeping / blowing debris off road pavement.

[@duzaliteraf7373]

1 second ago No views 1 comment (Pinned) No likes I'm first

[@brianpayne4549]

You should get a gopro, and get 1st person footage of repair jobs

[@charquail]

He does. Go watch his other videos.

[@brianpayne4549]

@@charquail then he needs to mount the camera on his head.

[@tonytango6676]

@@brianpayne4549 what are you talking about? He has lots of videos with a GoPro on his hardhat. Just go back and look.

[@Bobsdecline]

I don't always use it because I have to be selective as to what's shown on video; Other crew members, company logos, customers/private properties and even shots with construction that's not up to standard. They also require much more editing at times.

[@iansinclair521]

Nice try... but you can't fix stupid.

[@jovetj]

You might be surprised what a big-ass wrench can do! LOL!