FACTS
- The root caused of most of the problems that lead to power linemen deaths is failure to hire an adequate number of utility workers to perform the work safely. Inadequate Training, lack of adequate supervision, and not using proper safety gear.
- Accidental contact with live overhead power lines kills people and causes many serious injuries every year. Which includes:
- going close to a live overhead line can result in a flashover that may kill. Touching a power line is not necessary for danger.
- voltages lower than 230 volts can kill and injure people.
- do not mistake overhead power lines on wooden poles for telephone wires.
- electricity can bypass wood, plastic, or rubber, if it is damp or dirty, and cause fatal shocks. Don’t rely on gloves or rubber boots to protect you.
STATS
- Electrical hazards cause more than 300 deaths and 4,000 injuries each year among the U.S. workforce.
- Electrocution is sixth among causes of workplace deaths in America.
- Being a power lineman is listed as one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs in America. There are approximately 21 lineman deaths per 100,000 workers. This puts electrical power line installers and repairers at #9 on the top 10 workplace fatality rate list, right behind farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers.
- Over 90 % of the power line contacts reported to OSHA involved overhead “distribution” lines, the same lines that run through most of our neighborhoods and, very frequently, on our job sites. “Service drops” running from poles to utility customers and “high power transmission lines” running from generating stations to substations accounted for seven percent. Approximately two percent involved buried cables.
- Younger workers, between the ages of 20 and 35, suffered more than half of all the deaths and serious injuries reported.