Lineman Training Next Week car/pole

[scott6824]

Hi everyone.. new to this forum.... Journeyman lineman with a small utility in Wisconsin.... next week I have the opportunity to actually be an instructor at a state wide lineman hotline school. My safety instructor has informed me that I will be doing a car vs. pole ....pole change.... not sure quite on all the details yet.. but just seeing if you folks could give me some great tips to help me out .. that way I can share with the other lineman attending the school... little tricks that can help them out in the future ... have done a few at my small utility both 3 phase and single phase usually hot.. not sure at the school if simulating hot or de-energized and grounded.... thanks in advance...

[harlee]

All the car/poles I have done are e-z. The hard part is dealing with what you see at the site.

[Koga]

its the same for every one. Ya hafta look at it as a different job everytime you get to one. Check the poles on each side for a couple of spans. Damage might not be limited to just the pole hit. The time these things usually happen is 12 - 2 am after the poles are **** faced drunk and jump out in front of a car, in some of the best areas of town. I try and keep the cops around just in case. Seen more of em lately cause the driver was shot and tryin to drive em self to the hospital. Never ceases to amaze me the **** that goes down in those areas of town. Ya have to look out for more **** !

Koga

[old lineman]

If you are teaching about car crashes I believe you should consider the behaviour of anyone on site.
The police are as ill informed as the general public. They need to be taught not to go into the danger area.
Anyone in a car with downed conductors that are still energized are OK. The ones that are killed are trying to exit the car. They need to be taught how to exit a vehicle safely.
If the vehicle is on fire the firemen can become a hazard. They need instruction.
If there are guy wires and guard rails electricity can be far from the car.
There is always a possibility of step potential.
Ditches with water in them can conduct electricity.
Structures that have been stressed adjacent to the accident scene could have dislodged conductors that may be hanging low enough for someone to walk into. Look up.
All of this is worse in darkness.
This all leads to the question do we need to train police and firemen. Firemen will always try to extricate victims from a car. Do they know how to make the zone safe?
The Old Lineman

[Trbl639]

What Koga and Old Lineman said..............

Everytime is different........At Entergy Skills Center, we always Simulate Energized, in Training..........used to be guest Instructor there a couple times a year the last 4 or 5 years I worked.........Was always a good gig, kind of a Break from the everyday routine, but a **** good chance to teach the younguns something that will help them out.....

[cedar stick]

one thing to emphasize is that you are the expert that is on the scene. you need to make the scene as safe as you can before your help gets there. the breaker to non-reclose or de-energize and ground, your system, your call.

[TresAmigos]

In order to pass our HotStick/Rubber Glove school one of the things we had to do was complete a night excersise, which involved various jobs, but the main job was a car pole. The instructors selected foreman and assigned crews, and gave us a limited amount of equipment(bucket and line truck). They left it up to us on how to handle it, then critiqued us when we were done. Been on a handful of car pole contacts in my young career, and as stated above everyone is different. The one in our school was a great learning tool, we could focus/think on what we needed to do in a controlled enviroment

[49pan]

As was said before, check the other structures as well as transformers and all hardware that may be near by. If you have any services or open wire sec. with mid span taps don't forget to check the weatherheads. It really sucks when you go to heat everything up and a svc. goes to ground in the W.H. because a hot leg got skinned when the service got stretched. Yea it happened to me a long time ago, it only happend ounce !!!!!!!!!! Good luck

[ViceTop]

Every car Vs. pole is different. It can be a small piece of casing gone to total destruction, tubs on ground, oil everywhere. Like they said you have to be confident and take charge, the cops and fire department depend on you cause they don't have a clue as to what's safe and not. What kind of situation do they ask you about in training?

[topgroove]

Last winter I got a no lights and others call, by dumb luck I happened to be just a mile or so away. I stubled on the seen of a mva. the driver had taken out the pole and was 100 feet off the road upside down in a plowed field. I could see from the brake and reverse lights he was shifting back and forth trying to rock himself out. The guy was compleaty hammered. supprisingly enough he had only minor injuries. even stranger he was driving a late eighty's CHRYSLER K-CAR a Reliant I think.

[TresAmigos]

I went to one about two months ago. Girl just turned 16 got her license that day, parents bought her a new car...end result....put the car in reverse instead of drive, had it floored, wiped out the pole, car went over short brick wall into the neighbors car...Happy Birthday...Had to use the line truck to hold the pole off the car while the hook pulled the car out.

[Special ED]

Not every car/pole calls are the same.. Some break off completly. Some kinda float cause the wire is small and the trunk line from the phone company has suck an up strain on it the pole litterally floats.. (Really happend).. Then theres the crazy ones. Had a car load of mexicans drunk haulin ass hit the ditch then ramped a culvert and the car went through yes through not cracked or busted the shell the car went through the pole about 20 foot up. The construction was 3 way vertical on pole bands only instead of using shackles and putting the phases in the middle of the bands they used eye nuts or En-5s and put the phases on the outside. 4 circuits of 12 kv and only 7 pole bands on the distribution. Nevermind the 69 up top. Got the picture now?

Nothing is ever routine. Theres always diffrent variables and circumstances. Class work is good to get an idea but the knowledge is gained in the field with the old timers that have "been there and done that"..

Good luck and teach em well.

[Trbl639]

As most everyone has said...not all are alike..........

Had one one night.....butt of the 45/4 pole was sitting in the middle of the hood........pole had an ovhd guy, 336 3phase X-mas tree constuction on lapp/side posts, #2 cu open secondary and a couple of services and a 50KVA pot....it had so much strain on it, 2 of the phases, where they were on the clamp-top type sideposts looked like a 'Z'.....this was when we were having a rash of the lapp/sideposts insulators shearing off at the base for little or no reason.............we had a good crew, a good tailboard and worked it out hot...it was 0330 in the morning, and we could have switched it out, but decided to work hot...we all like a challenge, and that one was......

2 weeks later a guy going turkey hunting dropped something, reached down to pick it up and hit another pole....795 3 phase on Xmas tree construction, with a 25KVA and secondary and services...1 phase, the side post sheared off and floated, another the sidepost sheared off and the phase was laying on the steel bracket about an inch from the pole ground, (top/center phase had a LA on it)..........anyway when it happened, the station breaker never operated........we dumped the breaker to get that phase covered, maybe 3 minutes and worked it hot after that.........