Larry Jaques wrote:

On Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:19:17 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:


Larry Jaques wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:04:27 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:

The guy was killed because he was careless and disobeyed both company
and OSHA safety regulations. The guy who provided the electrons the
lineman committed suicide with is in no way responsible.

Sorry, Pete, but it takes two to fry an idiot. I think most of us will
disagree with you on that last statement. Yes, an idiot lineman who
doesn't act carefully is -most- responsible, but the asswipe who
charged the power line he was working on was also responsible for his
death.

Sorry, if the lineman followed mandatory procedures he would be alive.

Yes, the odds were much higher if he'd followed procedure.

Not "much higher", they would have been 100%. A properly grounded line
will not go hot.


The fault is his alone. It doesn't matter whether the electrons came
from a private generator or the utility's generator, the sole
responsibility lies with the lineman who disregarded mandatory safety
procedures.


It's illegal (in many areas) to charge the power line with a genset,
period.

Sorry, the power lines are always charged from a genset, usually a very
large one.

DBAD.

And either way, the source of the electrons is irrelevant to
the negligent lineman's death.

It's safety related and does matter. Do you think if that some idiot
in the power plant had told him that the power was down (when it
wasn't) that his head wouldn't roll for attempted murder (or murder)
of the lineman?

Linemen are regularly enabled to kill themselves by uncoordinated line
crews (especially with contract crews during a big storm cleanup), by
branches falling and removing a short followed by reclosers reclosing,
and numerous other sources. In all case the difference between dead and
safe comes down to the lineman's compliance with safety procedures - the
fault is his own.

I've read an incident report where a car accident plowed a pad mount
transformer off it's pad. The lineman showed up and then proceeded to
try to inspect and clean the "elbow" connectors (HV banana plugs
basically) without bothering to verify that they were not still live.
Would you try to blame the car driver for this lineman's act of
stupidity? I believe that idiot survived his zap and perhaps learned why
those safety procedures are mandatory.


Just as the
manufacturers who provided the gun and ammo that someone else committed
suicide with are not responsible.

Agreed, 100%.

If you agree with that, then you have to agree with the lineman's fault,
since it is the same situation.

No, the guy's genset in this case would be like a guy sneaking in with
a hooked coat hanger and pulling the trigger of a loaded gun before it
was holstered. It's criminal negligence to most of us. shrug

No, that is not remotely close to a valid analogy. The guy with the
generator loaned his gun to the lineman, but it was the lineman who
picked it up, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. It is not in
any way criminal negligence. It is not even negligence since the
lineman's mandatory safety procedures would have 100% prevented any
injury. The negligence is on the part of the lineman not following
mandatory procedures - He broke the rules and he was killed as a result
- nothing else is relevant to his death.