High Voltage near miss

[Johnsond]

Tipper driver dropping some granite chips pulled forward with the body up contacting the lines on some wooden poles. Not sure of the voltage but the dark patches you see on the pic is where the rear wheels were arcing to the ground ie as in up in flames ? hence the soot deposits !! The noise too was like something from an old Frankenstein movie 

Certainly gives you a bit of respect for the old electric. 

Driver was fine stayed in cab and backed away from lines. Mind you I wouldn't want to be going too far on them rear tyres 

 

[trigger_andy]

Damn!

[Baldbloke]

33 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

Tipper driver dropping some granite chips pulled forward with the body up contacting the lines on some wooden poles. Not sure of the voltage but the dark patches you see on the pic is where the rear wheels were arcing to the ground ie as in up in flames ? hence the soot deposits !! The noise too was like something from an old Frankenstein movie 

Certainly gives you a bit of respect for the old electric. 

Driver was fine stayed in cab and backed away from lines. Mind you I wouldn't want to be going too far on them rear tyres 

 

 11 KVA so I'm told. Plenty enough to fry you.

 

Dropped a tree in leaf against some similar lines many years ago. Top went up in flames and saved me looking for a lighter to burn the brash?

[Alex O]

Did it melt any of the tyres badly?

[spandit]

A 14 tonne excavator makes a pretty effective conductor for 11kVa too

[Macpherson]

Similar happened on Skye a few years back, the high voltage set the machine on fire so the poor bloke eventually had to jump and was killed pdq, can't remember how many volts but I think just about any overhead power are well dodgy.....it looks your driver had one foot in the grave from the photo, lucky man, cheers.

[dig-dug-dan]

Saw similar near me. Grab lorry tipped, left is grab in the air, and as he drove forward and touched the cables, all the tyres exploded with such a shockwave, i felt it it my chest. Lorry electrics fried, wrote it off. He had the unfortunate task of ringing his boss to give him the bad news, which happened to be his dad!

[Johnsond]

Some decent flat spots for sure. 

Id guess they were knackered which is a shame as he was a contract hauler for the quarry, short trip so only £60 in it for him. 

Mind you he walked away from it so compared to some other examples he was lucky. 

[richy_B]

Is just touching the cables enough to do this? You don't need to break/damage them? 

[Khriss]

3 minutes ago, richy_B said:

Is just touching the cables enough to do this? You don't need to break/damage them? 

Mate, just being near some of the 33kva stuff will live up yr kit to arcing point ! Think this driver was way lucky ! Those tyres could have exploded  ( got 100 psi in them at least ) or if it were yr polesaw,  fuel tank explosion. Maybe that tip site needs a bit of  a rethink.  Glad driver walked away from this . K