Power Lines
Every year 62 farm workers in the U.S. are electrocuted. The most common causes are portable grain augers, tractors with front end loaders, oversized wagons, large combines, fold-up cultivators, irrigation pipe and other tall equipment that contact overhead power lines.
✓Watch out for overhead electrical lines.
✓Know where they are located.
✓Treat all overhead power lines as though they can kill you.
✓Keep all tall equipment, irrigation pipes, and hay storage away from overhead lines.
What to Do If Your Vehicle or Equipment Comes in Contact with a Power Line?
If you are on equipment that contacts a power line, do not exit the equipment. When you step off the equipment, you become the electricity’s path to ground and receive a potentially fatal shock. Wait until utility workers have de-energized the line and confirmed it is safe for you to exit.
If the vehicle is on fire and you must exit, jump clear of the vehicle with both feet together. Hop as far from the vehicle as you can with your feet together. Keep your feet together to prevent current flow through your body, which could be deadly.
Power Line Safety Applies to Everybody!
- Consider every wire on the ground to be energized and dangerous. Most people do not know the difference between telephone lines and power lines. To be safe, stay away from both.
- Never touch downed power lines with other objects, such as brooms, boards, limbs or plastic materials. Only qualified electric utility workers should attempt to move downed power lines.
- Never touch anything (cars, fences, people, etc.) that is in contact with a power line. Call 911.
- If you see downed lines and the ground is wet or has standing water, do not go outside.
- Don’t touch anything, people included, that has come in contact with power lines.
- Never drive over downed power lines. Even if they’re not energized, they can get tangled in your vehicle.
- Do not attempt to cut or remove a tree that is, or could become, entangled with power lines. Contact your power company for assistance.
- Call your local 811 utility locator prior to digging to avoid unexpectedly striking an underground electrical line or any other utility.
Watch and share the video below to help keep farms safe when working around overhead electric lines.
