I was talking to a city power guy last week, and he said he recently got "zapped in the ear" by a 7,600 volt wire hanging down that he didn't see while he was up in the bucket. He was laughing like it was no big deal. I was just a bit terrified at the thought of getting 7,600 volts AC anywhere near me. Or am I just being paranoid?
I have a truck insulated for 69kV-with hydraulic controls and PTO for tools-I am pretty comfortable around 7600 volt lines-though my definition of around is greater than 15 feet away. IMO opinion "not seeing" anything when working around live wires in a bucket is carelessness (you have pretty good visibility
-perhaps I should edit that to not seeing anything when working around live wires is careless. The guys with the aluminum ladder didn't get a second chance to see the wire.
If I know I am taking a chance-wiring something live, etc-and I make sparks, or make a mistake and blow up an electrolytic cap like I did earlier today, I laugh about that. If I get zapped by something I didn't see I probably belong in an asylum cause I will chew myself out for it for quite a while- 7600 volts? I'm not sure Mike is paranoid enough!
Just came across this quote- "It is better to be careful 100 times than to get killed once."