13.06.2007

Harness saves operator

Roger Gunnoe, 35, an employee of Cheney Electric is a lucky man today thanks to the fact that he put his harness on yesterday and connected it to the platform he was using before starting work.

He was changing when .

Gunnoe was using a small utility bucket to change light bulbs at the Henderson district baseball ground in Burkburnett, near Wichita Falls Texas. He was halfway between two electricity poles at a height of between seven and nine metres when he brushed against a 7,200 volt power line which threw him from the cage of the platform.

The lanyard appears to have caught him and prevented him falling.

No one actually saw the accident but those who rescued him say that the fact that he was wearing a harness restrained him preventing what would have certainly been an least a seven metre fall to the ground.

An ambulance took Gunnoe hospital in Wichita Falls where he was listed as in stable condition yesterday.