This is what happens when a cranes cable touches a power line. http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...l=6&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
damn
I would think the primary would trip due to the fault. It looks like time to roast some marshmallows with a long stick!
I've seen this video before and I'm surprised that the operator didn't get electrocuted or that it didn't burn the cable in two where it hit the power line.
The whole time I was watching that I was thinking they should not be looking at that and he finaly said it at the end of the video.
Not only should they have not been looking at the arc, but the spectators should not have been standing in proximity of the overhead wires. By all rights those wires should have burned off and would have fallen dancing around on the ground until the fuse popped. Those wires are a minimum of 13,000 volts and any one of those people could have been killed should the wires have burned and dropped. Thanks for posting!
WOW I'm suprised nothing popped. I was told if you ever hit a power line to jump off the machine. Having a hand on the machine and foot on the ground will light you up.
Jumping off the machine is right. But its better to jump with both feet together.
That is some strong current if it can melt the rear outrigger.
One day on the job, a truckload of stone came in. The driver lined up right beneath a 30,00 volt power line, and raised the bed. Now, the line was at the top of the poles, and his bed would never have reached it, but there was a guy wire running from one pole to the other. The cab protector pushed up on the guy wire, which pulled the poles together, and let the 30kv wires sag, until the center one touched the guy wire. I was facing the other direction, and when I turned around, there was arcing and flames all around the rear tires. It blew all 4 tires across the rear, and the passenger side front tire, before the conductor that was in contact with the guy wire burned through. That happened at just about the same time as the fuse tripped at the transformer on the far pole. Fortunately, that was at the end of that line, so the downed wire was dead. Of course, so was the 9 story office building connected to the far pole. In the video, I have to assume that that was some pretty heavy duty current in the wire, to have not blown a breaker somewhere along the line.
A guy working for our power company once told me that the big feeder lines don't have fuses like the smaller distribution lines do. If something shorts the big line the circuits just push harder to make up for the bleed loss until some thing melts or goes boom. :beatsme
ouch Those guys were lucky for sure . I wonder what buddy was thinking setting up that close to power line.. The linemen I have worked with have told me if the machine is not on fire it is safer to stay in the machine then risk jumping out. If the machine is on fire then you are forced to jump out.. Teh proper thing to do then is jump as far as you can and land both feet at the same time then shuffel away. The electricity radiates through the ground like rings from a rock thrown into a pond if you take a step possibly get a nasty shock or worse. Another linemen told me a story about the haydays up in fort macmurray the contractors figured it was cheaper to pay to fix the broken line. the linemen were getting tired of fixing torn up lines. So they took the fuses out of the transformer on a distribution line and wired in solid copper. Needless to say the next line that got hit fryed the machine pretty good. After that contractors learned to call for locates.
It's better to stay in the vehicle or piece of equipment unless you are in immediate danger, an example being fire in the cab. MSHA and OSHA both teach this, as well as various power company training courses. The fact that you are sitting in the cab realizing that you have come in contact with a powerline means that you are currently not being electrocuted and that you are still alive. The chances of you becoming harmed dramatically increase once you leave the cab or touch things you are not already touching inside the cab. You should remain still in the cab with your hands in your lap unless you are presented with immediate danger. In the event you must leave the cab, you should jump as far from the equipment as possible and land with both feet touching each other. As soon as you hit the ground, keep jumping with both feet together until you are clear of the danger. Tacodriver, I agree with most of what you have said except the shuffling. The less you are in contact with the ground the better, hence the continued jumping. Below is a chart on the MSHA website of recommended distances to keep from lines according to the voltages. MSHA.gov
I've seen several training videos on power line contact and they say to stay put, but if you have to leave jump as for as you can then hop like a bunny or shuffle your feet on the ground with real short steps. That way you don't get in two different voltage areas. I've never hit a power line with a crane but what has me puzzled by all of these videos I've seen is why didn't the operator just swing away. I don't care if the wire welded itself to the line I'd be breaking off power poles for a half mile to get it away from there.
holy cow
What about the marshmallows?
God awful noise that arcing makes.
We just went through this just last friday actually. I copied a link to a article I found about it. But as it was explained to me shuffling is the safest if you must get off a vehicle. By hopping you take that much more of a chance of stumbling and having to take a step, if that happens you run the chance of shortening your lifespan to just the next few seconds. http://www.dom.com/news/downed_lines.jsp
I beg to differ. As it's been explained to me, there's a possibility that the vehicle is "charged". If you step off the vehicle, you can become the contact point between the ground and the vehicle. That's why you jump--you never want to be in contact with both the vehicle and the ground at the same time. (Perhaps you meant that you should shuffle rather than hop once you are off the vehicle, but I didn't read it that way, and I think the distinction is important.) As far as the shuffling, this thread is the first I'd ever heard that, but I suppose it makes sense.
Digger, I guess I should have made that distinction. I meant after you are on the ground shuffling seems the safer bet. I thought about adding this quote when I wrote that post but I didn't mabye this will clear things up. This is a quote from Countryboy. Sorry for the confusion.
Ok, then we're all on the same page with respect to the importance of NOT being in contact with the vehicle and the ground at the same time. That's a really important point, and I wanted to be sure we left no room for confusion. :yup
Power line accident I once had a friend of mine that worked at the plant with me. Her husband ran over a power line in this dump truck. He got out of his truck and got his self in between his truck and the power line. Was killed instantly!! So guys be careful around those power lines. Call 911 when you need help Thanks for all the help form this site Witgray
As long as we're on the subject, this would be a good time to remember that there are electric lines undeground too. Having your bucket in contact with one when you step off the machine could ruin your day.
I've never hit one either, but a possible cause to being unable to swing is meabe when they hit the line it might fry all the electrical in the machine and kill the engine or shutdown any electric over hydr. functions. From the looks of that one it melted all fuel and hydr. lines really quick All I know is I don't want to ever have to try! I would guess that something like that could be the orgin of the old saying "look up and live!"
He is right. The most important thing is to not make contact between the equipment and the ground. It is poor practice to lean against, loiter around or even get something out of a bin while a crane is operating around power lines. The second most important thing is if you have to leave the equipment jump as far as you can (without falling over), then keep your feet close together. The risk is that the difference in potential between your feet (voltage) could be enough to kill you. Whenever a piece of equipment makes contact with an energized power line it and the ground that the outriggers and tires are touching become energized to whatever the line to ground voltage is (2,400-34,000+volts is common, higher for transmission). The voltage that the earth is energized to decreases exponentially as you move away from the point of contact. Anyway, the way it works is if you take a 4 foot stride away from an outrigger the difference in voltage between your two feet could be 1,000 volts, but if you took 1 foot step the voltage would only be 300 or so. That can make the difference between you walking away unscathed because of the insulating value of your boots, or death. So shuffle or take small steps if you are ever around an electrical contact. Also, asphalt is actually a pretty good insulator, so if you have a choice jump onto blacktop instead of dirt.
Here's an idea;dont get in trouble with electric in the first place.Is is so dang important to always always pay attention to your environment. Granted things happen.The township replaced the bridge going over to our shop last winter and it raised the road about 18-20 inches.I have hauled equipment over that bridge 100's of times.The first hot day of the year I went over the bridge hauling a excavator the same way I have for years and right on the bridge I snagged a tv cable. (wire wrapped with 5/8th cable) That pulled two poles over and the electric wires on top of the poles fell right on our excavator.I was baffles as to how this happened as I had never had any problem before.( I was legal height) After they fixed everything up we measured the line dang near every day at different temps.Believe it or not,from a temp of 55 in the morning to 84 in the afternoon that wire would sag anywhere from 8-13 inches. We were really blown away by that.I imagined they sagged in the heat but I never thought that much. The only thing that happened to our equipment was the chrome was blown off of the cylinder where the wire fell on it. It was nice to have the knowledge to know how to safely exit the truck though.
While I do not know what the current best way to get out is. My Grandpa told me after jumping shuffle away not moving you feet more than about six inches at a time. He was a lineman and when he retired about 1980 he was foreman for 12 crews. Ruben: Grandpa also said when a line was shorted out it could sag several feet. He also hated working in detroit. Lines were tied together and backfeed and could be hot on both sides. In the 90's I was running a soil sampling rig. The underground line was mismarked as being on the other side of the road. We ended up driving a sampling spoon through a concrete box and power line. There was nothing ti indicate that we did until we pulled it out. Then it made a loud humm and a puff of smoke. When we got the sample spoon out the end was melted of. The spoon was on the end of a steel 1 1/2 inch drill rod. With a metal 140lb drop hammer run with a cat head and 1 1/4 inch rope. Luckily no one was hurt. Billy
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~
Power lines are bad news.. My father got popped by one a few years back. while installing street lights, working over head in a bucket truck. He survived got burned up pretty good. the only thing that saved him was the fact that when the power lines arced out, it ruined the hydraulics in the truck so it immediately dropped to the ground. He was about twelve feet from the lines. Never made contact.
I believe this is the video mentioned in the OP YouTube - Crane hits power line
not a crane but an excavator yesterday One of the operators at work touched a line in a 320 hyundai ex blew chunks out of the ram on the boom.
WOW, any photos?
What about lightning? Running a blade with a storming approaching would give me the willys. More than once I've stopped and lifted the blade off the ground to wait it out. Never heard of one being hit, however I had a tool pusher tell me that when drill rigs are hit it can mess up the bearings by arcing across them. Rigs are usually well grounded when the drill string is in the hole.
Im not sure how the power lines are run in your neck of the woods, but down here in Aus if a line drops to the ground it will cut out after a few seconds. It will then re-energize after a set amount of time. It will then try for a third time before finally cutting out. I was told it works this way in the event that a tree branch shorts a line temporarily it wont cut power indefinitely until a service tech gets out there to re-energize it. I found this out after I was watching a cop stand near a fallen power line, keeping people away from it. The line was happily lying there on the ground when it re-energized about two feet away from the cop. It sounded like a small explosion going off and the flash was quite impressive. The cop **** his pants, then stood a little further back.
I think you can just left click the pictures now, and the videos will play in Windows Media Player... some are rather interesting. Yes, there's some pictures of a crane and power lines too... OCR
Well I suppose this aint mains power line with cranes etc but a few years ago I was welding in a tunnel where they were water blasting and the place was like a sauna. I was welding rio bar when all of a sudden I was thrown back against the rail and broke the rail falling about a metre to the ground. It turned out the device in the welder was faulty and I got a full 110 amps up my arm. As I was so sweaty the current went straight back down my arm and out thru another finger. When I was at the hospital the quack said I know you a left hander or you would be in the morg right now. When the mining inquest was held the main guy guy first said I'm glad I'm talking to you now but why did you let that happen. With my reply my employer stood up and shot me down which killed any chance of me proving I was working in a hazardous place. Needless to say I moved out of that town in a short time. But I do count myself as one lucky guy. About 15 years ago I was working on stripping out an old mill which was sold to china and when the 110 ton crane came in to pickup the mill a 480 volt power supply was in the way. The main boss asked me for a boilermaker to cut thru the cable and I firmly asked for it to to tested. his relpy was there is no underground cable left so the power outlet is dead. My good friend cut the main cable and was shot 20' back and died. The cable was live and it took 5 guys to hold me back from killing the guy that told me to cut the line....... The problems I've seen in the last 15 years is the younger generation get in power, have no idea and us older guys are at their mercy. Even with guys in cranes where is that guy who used to watch the crane to ensure everything was safe is gone now.
sounds like you need to come over to WA into the mines, you cant fart without a safe work procedure, spotter and an MSDS
How things change. I used to work in the goldfields about 20 years ago and it was anything goes and now it looks as if the pendulum has swung way to far the other way. If I worked by the same rules as the mining industry I think I would be broke in a week!!! Look on the bright side rare SS you get paid to do all the JHA's take 5's ect,ect....
I am very sorry to hear about this tragic loss. The sure fire way to make sure something is dead when the bossman swears it is dead is to hand him the cutting tool, be it bolt croppers, hacksaw, petrol cutter. If he aint got the balls to cut it then nobody else should.