Electrocution in Minnesota

[Tom Dunlap]

Fridley is a northern suburb of Minneapolis

Worker electrocuted, dies while trimming tree in Fridley

Anoka County officials say a tree service employee died Thursday after accidentally making contact with a powerline.

www.kare11.com

 

[Dan Cobb]

Very sad. As always for work related fatalities. My guess is that "cutting into a power line" is a mischaracterization of what actually occurred. Seems unlikely that anyone could directly cut into a power line. The inattention required for that is staggering.

 

[Treezybreez]

Very sad. As always for work related fatalities. My guess is that "cutting into a power line" is a mischaracterization of what actually occurred. Seems unlikely that anyone could directly cut into a power line. The inattention required for that is staggering.

Maybe it was an insulated secondary that ran through a tree and was invisible from a particular angle?

 

[Muggs]

I was working for an old school tree guy many years ago. I watched him cut right into a service line with a 044. It was two big coated wires wrapped around a steel cable. He somehow managed to hit just the steel cable, sparks flew, then he stopped. I still to this day don't know he got that lucky.....

 

[southsoundtree]

Maybe it was an insulated secondary that ran through a tree and was invisible from a particular angle?

Nothing is invisible.

We need to find not A power line, but Every power line.
One pole could service several houses, and have several lines through one tree.

 

[cerviarborist]

I was presenting a review of Z133 for my work team this past week, and noted that the Arboricultural Safety Standard was put into place after a worker for a private tree care company was electrocuted on a residential job. The worker’s mother initiated a letter writing campaign, which resulted in the creation of Z133. I’m glad that preparation for my presentation forced me to do a deep dive into the standard. It really rates a cover-to-cover read. It addresses most any tree work scenario one could imagine, and is full of informational “Easter Eggs”, including green log weight charts, an aerial rescue flow chart, crane hand signals and much more.

 

[oldoakman]

Cerviarborist, I was a second instructor on a Line Clearance cert class at ACRT and the Lead Instructor had met the mother of the young man who was killed. He was 17 and working for the company for a summer job and had contacted a service drop. by my understanding. She was an honorary member of the Z committee for many years although her name is not currently listed. I would assume she has passed away.

One time I got my polesaw blade against a house drop that had compromised coating and melted several teeth off the blade. Arcin' and sparkin'.

 

[27RMT0N]

Very sad. As always for work related fatalities. My guess is that "cutting into a power line" is a mischaracterization of what actually occurred. Seems unlikely that anyone could directly cut into a power line. The inattention required for that is staggering.

So I kinda did that once actually. Not quite a 'powerline' though.

I was cleaning up the overgrown yard of a neglected house and removing this mess. Turned out there was a hot extension cord running through all that I couldn't see. Sparks flew and my saw shut off immediately, but I was unharmed and the saw started up again... quite a surprise.

 

[Tony]

Very sad. As always for work related fatalities. My guess is that "cutting into a power line" is a mischaracterization of what actually occurred. Seems unlikely that anyone could directly cut into a power line. The inattention required for that is staggering.

In my experience with past incident investigations is the way a line could be obviously missed is it is never looked for in the first place…. Which leads us to Southsound’s comment.

Always look until you find the electrical hazard or determine there is none.

Tony