General Osha would like a word with you
- Thread starter kvr28
- Start date
About 6-7 years ago, we had some dipshit from Siemens here turning up a power distribution unit. It was located in a protected area, so he had to be escorted. For whatever reason his escort ended up being our current CTO, although he wasn't the CTO at the time. The dude from Siemens starts doing his thing and within a minute or so, our CTO gets a phone call, so he steps maybe 10 feet away from the Siemens tech and the PDU.
The Siemens tech wasn't paying attention to what he was doing while he was terminating some of the connections and his screwdriver caused a massive arc which let to a massive flash and loud bang. Our CTO ran over to make sure he was okay, he was, and then immediately left the area to go grab some more people. As soon as he was alone, he started putting on the protective gear that he should have been wearing. Once he got about halfway suited up, he started noticing the cameras. He walked right up to one of them, looked right into it, and mouthed "FUCK".
Needless to say, Siemens replaced the PDU and waived the fees to install and turn-up the replacement. I think that fuckup cost them about a quarter of a million dollars, at least on paper. I believe that tech lost his job, too.
The Siemens tech wasn't paying attention to what he was doing while he was terminating some of the connections and his screwdriver caused a massive arc which let to a massive flash and loud bang. Our CTO ran over to make sure he was okay, he was, and then immediately left the area to go grab some more people. As soon as he was alone, he started putting on the protective gear that he should have been wearing. Once he got about halfway suited up, he started noticing the cameras. He walked right up to one of them, looked right into it, and mouthed "FUCK".
Needless to say, Siemens replaced the PDU and waived the fees to install and turn-up the replacement. I think that fuckup cost them about a quarter of a million dollars, at least on paper. I believe that tech lost his job, too.
I’ve seen some bs over the years as well. Some recently. As a matter of fact I’m finishing up paperwork to have an entire comms group get their clearance authorizations pulled, required 8hr retraining class with exam of 80% or better to pass, probation & 5% pay reduction for 6mo.
Yesterday they did work that interrupted data transfer to a reliability entity without getting the ok to start work. My power desk had an outage card with the other entity in the queue. These guys called stating they were finished & we’re asked who they received the ok to begin work from. They said their boss. Wrong answer.
Some Darwinism individuals
Funniest one was a tech that dropped an Air Force base because of a screwdriver in his back pocket. This was prior to new solid state relay package so the old electromechanical relays were still in service. He was behind the relay board taking his readings, squatted down & the screwdriver shorted two lugs on the back of a distance relay that controls the cb feeding the AFB.
Management didn’t believe the outage report so had the guy walk through what he did. Guy puts the screwdriver in his back pocket & says “I squatted down to get my time stamps here” & shorts the same lugs dropping the AFB again 😂😂😂😂😂
When I was framing houses back in the 90s we had a guy on the roof tie up a support line to keep from falling off. Solid idea until the dude who owned the van that he tied the other end of the rope to decided to go to lunch.
I mean, that's how I roll.
Gimme Linemen & a insulated flathead & I'll wire the world.
I know sparkies that do the same, had an electrician replacing fridge units in a grocery store, I don't even know what the voltage was of the wire he was trying to wrestle fuck into the cabinet but he nicked it on a piece of a sheet metal corner and got blown back, his clothes were smoking, he lit a cigarette and just sat there staring at it, finished his smoke and then went back at it. I was just standing there like wtf.
I don't fuck with electricity, it's one thing I'll gladly pay someone to do for me.
Ive run too many 911s
In my anecdotal experience you are more likely to survive being hit by lightning than being knocked shitless by a panel.
All of my lightning strike patients over the years (including myself) have come through with minimal lasting injuries, other than a perpetual fear of clouds lol.
My industrial survival rate is significantly lower.
Ive run too many 911s
In my anecdotal experience you are more likely to survive being hit by lightning than being knocked shitless by a panel.
All of my lightning strike patients over the years (including myself) have come through with minimal lasting injuries, other than a perpetual fear of clouds lol.
My industrial survival rate is significantly lower.
Similar story with 277v-480v 3-phase(obviously) 3 legs on 20 amp.
I Was doing the lighting on a hospital, And we had the lighting contactor panel supposedly locked out breakers.
I put my hot stick on them and nothing red so I went to town unwiring and re labeling circuits in a J box.
Then it hit me as I was in the ceiling grid and it shot out my elbow on the ceiling grid and tripped the breaker and sparks flew.
I was about blown off my ladder.
That was the hardest I've ever been hit and I had to sit down against a wall for some time then I went back to work.
But after working for about a half an hour 45 minutes I had to go up to the break room and just sit up there for an hour cause it really messed me up.
All I know for sure is that at least 20 amps went through my body.
And it takes about 1 thousandth of that to stop a heart.
I guess it's because I don't work with it every day, but I am hyper aware when I'm in any of our switchgear rooms or around any of our PDU or panels. I've seen the aftermath of people getting badly shocked, and it's something I'd like to avoid. The most I've been zapped by was 240 in a barn, it just spun me around and gave me arrhythmia for about 18 hours. I found that out when I ended up in the emergency room later that night. I was walking into a club to see DJ Icey and all of a sudden I got really short of breath and light headed. My friends freaked out and made me go to the ER to get checked out as one of them happened to be there earlier that day when I got zapped. I remember being able to feel the urine in my bladder tingling shortly after I got shocked.