09.07.2008

Lucky to be alive

A crane drive is lucky to be alive today after he slewed a metal pipe he was lifting into power lines in Orchard Mesa Colorado yesterday.

Lonnie Wetz of KECI General Contractors was lifting the steel pipe, ready to place it in the ground, when he apparently lost control of his crane and slewed it into the overhead power lines.

The Grand Junction Fire Department and Xcel Energy were called out to the site by the side of a highway to fix the damaged power line which had deprived some 150 homes of power.

According to the power line workers the fact that the diver remained in the cab of his crane until the power was cut off saved his life. He said: “If Wetz would have tried to jump out of his vehicle, he would've died instantly from the shock of 15 thousand volts.”

Vertikal Comment

One assumes that Wetz was trained to stay in the cab when contacting power cables? If not then he was lucky not to have followed the natural reaction of most people to leave the cab in such a situation.