Tree trimmer killed by electrical wire

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TreEmergencyB

TreEmergencyB

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Apr 15, 2009
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Greater Pittsburgh Area
dont like electric. boss send me out on a job the otherday with a uncoated old 3phase running straight though the middle of the tree, no bucket access and im not certified to work that close, called him up and told him he needed to come do it or its not getting done.
 
imagineero

imagineero

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blue mountains australia
that just sounds so dodgy... the wiring code seems pretty week stateside. All our service drops are coated in aus, you could pretty much bite them. We very very rarely have electrical incidents with tree work over here

Shaun
 
TreeClimber57

TreeClimber57

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Midland, Ontario, Canada
that just sounds so dodgy... the wiring code seems pretty week stateside. All our service drops are coated in aus, you could pretty much bite them. We very very rarely have electrical incidents with tree work over here

Shaun

Well if it was "uncoated", it had to be seperate wires and quite possibly primary vs service drops. Did not see anywhere that it was a service drop. Although it did state that it was "old".
 
Toddppm

Toddppm

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Coated or not you can still get fried.
I wonder if the police really stated that there's ways to avoid this? That's kind of a ####ty thing to say considering the situation, who knows maybe they were certified?
 
theoctagon

theoctagon

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Mar 11, 2008
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minnesota
Im sure that this was primary wire that this guy got into. I agree w/ the comment by the cops being shi##y. Every accident in history could be avoided with the proper precautions.... Thats why they are accidents.

They Secondary wires can be uncoated when they feet a whole block off one transformer. They just tie in each service off the separate wires. Usually they were coated to begin with but it was a cloth coating that doesnt last forever. Secondary wires in a tree shouldnt be too big of deal its primary wires you need to worry about. Secondaries can kill you but its much more likely that primary will when it comes to grounding through the trees. Either way its better to be safe than sorry.

I cringe every time i hear about this happening either to a arborist or to a lineman. All it takes is a hole the size of a pin tip in rubber gloves to make you not see your family that night.
 
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