Line Worker Safety

‘Stay safe.’ It’s a phrase we hear all the time. To some people, it has a special meaning, especially when they’re on the job. It means coming home at night to loved ones, whole and unharmed. To lineworkers who face danger daily working with electricity, it means focus and preparation and following some common steps to avoid pitfalls.

A new effort called ‘Commitment to Zero Contacts” launched in 2018. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange introduces the initiative to help eliminate serious injuries and fatalities and enhance cooperative safety programs.
When CEO Zac Perkins signed the pledge for TCEC, he committed the cooperative and its employees to the following work practices and ideas:
• Use life-saving rules: • Personal Protective Equipment (gloves and sleeves) • Application of personal grounds
• Application of proper insulating material
• Proper use of clearance procedures
• To “speak up” and not accept, or walk by, a shortcut to safe work
• Slow down and perform effective job planning on all work assignments.
The cooperative has a strong safety program in place, the zero contacts initiative reinforces it. Employees have tailgates before every job to discuss their approach, they attend training locally and at the statewide level and they have a safety committee.

Our members have a place in helping our workers come home safe too. Ensuring generators are properly installed with a “double-throw switch” to prevent backfeeding is critical. Staying attentive and slowing down when you see ‘Utility Work Ahead’ signs helps too. If you see crews working, please don’t approach them to avoid dangerous distractions.

Because we live and work in the community we serve, we care about our neighbors. TCEC conducts electrical safety demonstrations in schools.
According to the Electrical Safety Foundation, each year thousands of people in the United States are critically injured and electrocuted as a result of electrical fires, accidents and electrocution in their own homes. Many of these accidents are preventable. There is much you can do to keep yourself and your community safe around electricity.
Don’t attempt electrical projects yourself or overload your outlets. Report downed power lines, unlocked substations or padmount transformers that look amiss.
If a power line falls on your car, stay in it unless a fire or other emergency causes you to exit. If you must exit, shuffle your feet or hop with them together.

If you would like us to provide a safety demonstration at your school or community event, please contact TCEC at 580.652.2418. Pause and take the extra time to plug into safety.