Workplace safety is top of mind for all business owners, especially those who work in potentially hazardous industries. For most construction sites and their workers, the chance of an on-site injury is high. However, at Sigalarm we pride ourselves on making products that can greatly help keep you and your equipment safe on the job. Below are three examples of overhead power line stories with a less than happy ending. Each of these stories demonstrates how the proper safety equipment and warning devices could have safeguarded lives and expensive equipment.
At a construction site in Seattle, two workers were severely injured when a crane’s boom came into contact with overhead, high voltage power lines. This sent 14 kilovolts traveling through the hoistline, hitting the workers and causing significant injuries. The contractors now face fines from the Washington State’s Department of Labor & Industries totaling more than $220,000. Unfortunately, this incident could and should have been avoided; the danger resulting from a crane hitting an overhead power line is well-known. In fact, from 1999-2012, there were nine deaths in Washington from similar incidents.
A fatality was recorded in South Los Angeles in January 2018 when a boom lift a man was standing in came into contact with a power line. Another passenger, a 17-year-old, was able to jump to safety and avoid any significant injuries. While it is unclear if either of these men had any official business being in or near the construction equipment, the close proximity of the equipment to live power lines poses a danger to anyone. This fatality may have been avoided with the proper high voltage alarms alerting the men to danger.
Another fatality and another injury were recorded at a construction site in Faribault, Minnesota. While working on a senior living apartment building, three construction workers riding in a boom lift struck a power line. This caused one fatality and another worker was airlifted to a local hospital in critical condition. With no warning system available, the workers would have had no way of knowing how close they were to danger. These life-saving proximity alarms protect the entire length of the boom and offer audio and visual warnings when danger is near.
Each of the accidents in these overhead power line stories could have been avoided with the appropriate warning systems in place. Sigalarm’s proximity detection alarms are designed to warn workers if they are close to power lines. In the event that work must be conducted near a power line (no closer than OSHA minimums, of course), Sigalarm proximity alarms can be set to warn of danger when the equipment enters a preset area.
To find out more about Sigalarm, our proximity alarms, and our mission to prevent on-the-job accidents, please contact us today.
