I seen him in the hospital a few days ago he has 3rd degree burns on his left hand and on both feet and he told me his big toes exploded and well the way they were wrapped I would say that is correct. I was told that he will be in there for a long time because of surguries and the burn treatment his spirits were good but I think if he did not have morphine he would not be so happy. Oh lastly EMS screwed up and made him wait a hr in a puddle of water because they had no clue on what to do.... and the admiting hospital is so backward they told me when I was trying to find him they discharged him.....lol yah ok I said with 3 rd degree burns.....

I gave him a concretepumping.com t shirt and that put a smile on his face...

oh because of the 16 feet in the air he traveled he was still wearing a c spine collar I dont know if it is off but they cat scanned him 2x and it is still on so that is not good. But from what I was told it was 16000 volts that went through him.

Any other details? Was it a malfuntion, op error, did the power jump to the boom? thats alot of power, cant believe he made it threw at all. Glad he did but heard of others with alot less power and alot more damage. Wonder if Todd has a list of all the operators that were not so lucky, or a number at least.

hey 38, good to see you made it home in one piece. Thanks for stopping in to see us, that was cool.

Thanks for the update 38zman. It was probably a good thing he was thown 16 feet or he probably would not have survived. I hope they don't plan to use that pump until they take the boom apart and inspect all the pins and bushings as well changing the rotec gear.

First I want to say I hope that this Operator and his family are going to be OK: Our thoughts and prayers are with you, be well I hope you recover. My comments below are not about you they are for the rest of us to hopefully learn from and that is the reason behind this post.

First what have we learned from this and the answer is some of us have learned a lot, and some of us never will. Some of us will take this tragedy as a warning and some of us will still push the envelope on the next power line job we come to and still put our pumps, our coworkers and our own lives and that of our own family’s future in the danger zone and for what.

Twenty five - Thirty five dollars an hour, is that what our lives are worth, or will we risk our lives to save some poor guys on the site the 5 minutes it takes to drag around an extra couple feet of hose.

I know every doctor and every EMS worker or firemen that recued this operator said the same thing, "You’re lucky to be alive". For the next few month, years who knows this operator will undergo surgeries to fix the burned and broke parts; He may have the physiological effects of PST post traumatic stress disorder, he may be able to work, he may not and he may not ever what to do this job again who knows.

Then what about the rest of us, can we learn anything from this accident; Will we ever learn from the mistakes of others when power lines come into play in our profession - it’s hard to say.

Here is what you have to know about these types of things:

Come on guys is it really worth your $25.00 - $35.00 dollars per hour to push the limit. I think not. Read the power line safety article on this site and get a refresher on how extremely dangerous our jobs really can be if we alone choose to make them that dangerous.

I know one guy that will never have this problem again and hope he recovers and is well. As for the rest of us kiss your wives, kids and girlfriends good by in the morning because if you push the limits one day it will be you last, and when your lying on the ground, your body is burring up from the inside out and you skin is bubbling off the bone like butter in a frying pan from your injuries and the Fire Department and EMS guys are standing there not able to help you until they confirm the power lines been cut off……………………

The words I told you so, just aint going to cut it.

So who’s next – Only You Can Make That Choice?

I was given a bright green cloth patch with bungies in it to put on my hose in the event I was working with powerlines around. Thought that was so stupid, until i put it on one day. Threw out the whole pour people were asking me what that stupid bright thing was for, everytime the hoseman wanted me to move the boom, i would see it, and it would remind me to look around for the wires. Visual reminders work. Still have it and will use it again one day.