Little Rock Fatality

[PinnaclePete]

UPDATE: Tree trimmer electrocuted, name released - FOX16.com Little Rock, AR

The victim had brushed out a large Elm damaged during the Christmas storm, leaders on both sides of a 7.2kV single phase. As he was descending one of the leads on his climbing line, spikes and with his steel core lanyard around the stem, the loose tail of his lanyard looped over the line and "buzzed" him. He reached over to remove the lanyard and grabbed the line with his left hand, exit wounds at his left knee and left foot. He was suspended for 45 minutes - hand on wire, climbing line and lanyard still attached before he could be lowered. This was not an inexperienced company or climber. They were in a hurray and tired - as we all are since the Christmas day storm.

Remember, if you are not trained and qualified, you must stay at least 10 feet from conductors. Dr. John Ball states that statistics show 90% of tree care injuries and fatalities are caused by the victim. Please be careful!!!

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Bad, very bad.

I would have slid down the trunk and let the tail flip off the line. But I wasn't there.

Made me nervous doing ice-storm damage removal last January when I was around 40 ft. up a pin oak. There were some MAJOR power lines -- the type one step below the giant towers--- about 30 ft. away, close enough that the utility had cut the limbs on the oak to the trunk on that side. I had climbed up to remove some hangers on the other side, and was worried that even at 30 ft., there was so much metal on me that the power could arc somehow. I have a 16 ft. steel core, and I moved slowly and made sure the tail was always hanging straight down. Never felt so much as a tingle, but nerve wracking the whole time.

This guy must have been a hell of a lot closer, or perhaps the tree arced above the wire. Never should have been up there.

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Why would you have a 16ft. steel core lanyard working near powerlines?

Seems like a good time to leave that one on the ground.

Glad you made out OK. I would have been worried about inductive voltage being created in the steel.

Its just my standard kit -- I use it to flip over limbs to advance upward, and get some side stability from another limb. You are right -- should have left it on the ground in that case. Force of habit. I obviously was NOT going to fling it around on the side of the tree towards the power lines. These were "main lines": thick (1 in.?) braided cable hanging from the bottoms of two ft. insulators attached to big wooden poles. Scary stuff. not the bare wire on the top of a neighborhood line; those are bad enough.

 

[Incomplete]

Seeing that picture gave me chills. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jed1124]

Good time to have a reminder to have our current EHAP training under our belts. Stay safe.