Face Every Conductor As Though It Were Live
Dave Smith has been an Industrial Maintenance Electrician since 1975. He has taught maintenance, troubleshooting and safety courses to thousands of electricians in mines, mills, refineries, factories, plants, power stations and offshore platforms throughout North America and the Middle East. Dave is a hands-on guy and teache...
The job was simple. Lock, tag and isolate a motor at the disconnect, open up the junction box, apply safety grounds, and test the motor. The senior electrician was very close to retirement and was noted for his commitment and continuous promotion of safety. He was partnered with electrician #2 whom he had trained and mentored.
After helping lock out the disconnect, #2 went to get the voltage detector. #1 was in front of the junction cabinet; when #2 returned with the voltage detector, #1 asked him to unlock the cabinet. #2, concentrating on the voltage detector, reached over and unlocked the cabinet – no questions asked – then went back to proving the voltage detector. #1, at that moment, opened the door and, for some impulsive, unknown reason – and before #2 realized what was happening – reached in and touched C phase.
He was instantly electrocuted because he had gone to the wrong cabinet, and #2 did not double check the cabinet lamacoid.
A death like this is ugly to experience and the horror of it cannot be described. Suffice to say, pandemonium ensued and, in a case like this, when you cry for help, everyone runs into the room asking the same question: What happened?
The human mind stores information in short-term memory and, when something dramatic like this happens, it completely obliterates your short-term memory. When asked what happened, you will have no way of actually describing what happened. Your mind will be blank, and you will also suffer terrible feelings that cannot be described.
With every person who came in, the same question was asked: What happened? Then comes the supervisor, one level up the testosterone ladder, then the facility manager, further up the testosterone ladder. Then come the police, the provincial safety inspectors and, somewhere down the line, senior corporate people arrive… all asking the same question.
At some point, a smart alec will ask: “Why didn’t you stop him?”. At that point you have no answer and, in the numbness of your mind, you will be grieving over the same question. The reality is there is no way that you can stop someone from doing something so impulsively and smoothly and fluidly when you cannot even imagine they would do it.
You will be in therapy for months with guilt, shame and survivor syndrome coursing through your soul. As an electrical safety instructor, I have pondered many times how to prevent accidents like this. Were I to tell a group of electricians “Never reach inside a 5kV cabinet with your bare hands and touch any of the phases until you have an electrically safe work condition”, they would all look at me and think, “This is a good course for apprentices, but does not apply to me”. Yet when a journeyman with 25 years of experience does exactly that, then it actually does apply to everyone.
In discussing accidents like this with psychologists, we have been told they happen because the victims do not think for a minute they could possibly be wrong. When we teach electricians, we drill into them that everyone is capable of mistaking a cabinet, making an impulsive movement and taking a shortcut around a procedure.
Your personal job is to make enough money to pay the bills, go home safe and sound every day, build a nest egg for a decent retirement and enjoy the journey of your life with your family, so adjust your performance to accomplish that.
Every time you go to a cabinet, pretend it is the wrong one and you will triple your precautions. Imagine it is actually going to blow up the moment you open the door, and you will ensure your PPE, body position, safe work practices are correct, and that you are carefully following your safe work procedures.
And, when you are faced with any conductor – whether it is a wire, terminal, bus bar, etc. – tell yourself every time “I bet this damn thing is still live!”, and you will act differently… certainly not impulsively. To work in a physical world and not make any mistakes is an incredible challenge. We must all recognize we are just one mistake away from the burn unit or the morgue.
Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.