Just happy to be here to post this

[Bayrat]

<font color=red>First of all Doc, glad you are ok!</font color=red> I am curious as to the locators employer, since I am in charge of over half of the ones that work for my company (a utility). Our locating is done pretty much in-house and these guys make a decent wage and do a great job. We have a contract for locating performed by an independant nationwide contractor (low bid), which shall remain nameless, for some of our more remote areas. It is hard for these low-bid sub-contractor locating companies to get good help for $8 an hour and when they do, the work is piled on them to a point they are always behind, a perfect recipie for disaster. The mapping may have been bad and perhaps the locator did not have the experience to think through the locate and do it correctly or perhaps he was in too much of a hurry. At any rate, it almost killed someone and there is no excuse for it except carelessness on SOMEONES part, either the engineer that did not update the as-builts, the locator or the mapper. Usually with gas you have the ability to run away before it touches off, with electric there is an immediate consequence. Again, I am glad you are OK!!

 

[NIXON]

Doc ... Glad to hear you came out of this okay !
The reason you weren't lit up is that you stayed on the machine ! You, the machine and the power line were at the same voltage ( Quite high I'm sure ) If you would have tried to step off.... We wouldn't be reading your post . As soon as you foot or other body part hit the ground you would have become the conductor (current path ) for some very high voltage and Current . Happy Thangiving... John

 

[Titanic]

Glad to see your ok. I had a reputable Hvac company(at least i thought) removing my boiler and lines throughout my house. They were installing a new forced air furnance with air conditioning . In the process of removing the old hot water lines from my house they cut through the main gas line in my basement with a sawzall. They where able to run outside and turn off the gas at the meter.My family was home at the time this happened.I was at work. Fortunely my family and house are still here.The installer that cut through the gas line was so shook up he didn't go to work for several days.