Pay Attention!

AndyR · Jul 1, 2002

I was heading over towards Brattleboro, VT on Saturday and saw a small excavator caught in telephone lines like an arresting hook. The excavator had an extended boom and the cylinder on the main arm made a perfect catch of three or four large telephone cables. The impact appeared to have broken the gooseneck hitch though the tongue was still on the bed of a Chevy 3500. Lots of fireman and owner types standing around looking nervous and perplexed. When I came back that way on Sunday there were several new splice boxes on that section of line.

Be carefull of how tall your load is!

BHarrison · Jul 1, 2002

Don't get me wrong, I understand fully what you mean, but the phone company needs to pay attention to their specs also. There is a line in front of my place that has been snagged, and they still will not bring it to minimum height spec.

I have also seen a log truck stacked too high. It caught every power line that it crossed through.

You have a point. I'm just playing devils advocate.

AndyR · Jul 1, 2002

You won't get much arguement from me on the laziness of the Telcos. I wonder if there are any laws on the books that hold THEM responsible for equipment damage when the lines are below spec.?

Woody1 · Jul 1, 2002

on the farm that I grew up on, the tele line was accross the road. The line was brought overhead to our place. Whenever a implement truck came by, they were ALWAYS going to fast, clipped the phoneline, never even knew they did it, and it would be 3-4 days before tele comp. would come out and fiz it. They would simply attach a new line, at same height as before. No changes made. You would think they would learn after time and time again. This would happen at least 2 times per year for 17 years. They finally, AFTER we moved off the farm, took it UNDER the road. Geesh, what a concept!

jhburke · Jul 1, 2002

Years ago my dad went tru a small town south of where I currently live. His load took down all the phone lines crossing the hyway. When the phone company started saying they were going charge my dad for the damage, the mayor of the town told the phone company that he had warned them about the lines being below minimum height. The phone co replaced the lines at a higher height.

mbsil · Jul 2, 2002

Code requires lines over a road to be a minimum of 18' above the highest piont of the roadway that is crossed.

Steelfan · Jul 2, 2002

Yep, Telco are the worst at keeping distances between lines, and other objects. We built a house 15 years ago, and found out last year that the main trunk for Bell of Pa for this area ran 2 feet away from our house. the Telco guy , who came down said "what were they thinking"? They raised the line about 15 feet to proper height, and no more problem. I think they figured no harm no foul.

chim · Jul 2, 2002

The utility companies have their own "codes". Installations made by contractors and individuals must follow the National Electrical Code, for electrical work. The power companies are exempt in most cases. Had this discussion years ago with a rep for Pennsylvania Power & Light. For example, look at the size of cables they use vs. what we'd be required to install.............chim

crawdad · Jul 10, 2002

many years ago my friend had the contract for snow removal at the local hospital in the town i used to
live.
they would fill the 10 wheel dump w/snow and dump in a field about a mile down the road.

well inbetween the hospital and the field is the local tavern and since it was a good storm we were
all in there. my friend kept coming in for a quick one every other load or so. after a couple hours
of this he went back out for another load.about a half hour later the lights went out......
no phones....nothing...then my friend came back in for another quick one....thats when we
noticed he had forgotten to lower the dump after dropping off the load of snow....he bought the bar a round of drinks to ensure our silence and he got the heck out of there...
this was years ago,before you ever heard of DWI

Mrwurm · Jul 10, 2002

I saw a utility company truck drive through an intersection and take out the stop light. He was driving with the bucket lift extended. Now tell me how this happened? Did'nt the last man in the bucket have to lower it to get out?