Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said the casualty was out of the vehicle upon arrival. It said the cause was “accidental”.
Thats what probably did it, getting out to have a look instead of getting on the blower to the emergency services.
Rule 1. Never get out of the vehicle until someone confirms the power is off. Whilst you are in the vehicle you are isolated from ground. As soon as you get out and your foot touches the floor, if you’re still holding onto the vehicle all that current flows through you.
Yeh, I thought that, but did not want to say in case I was wrong and appeared stupid …(.yeh, I know, it does not usually bother me )
Interestingly it was one of the things covered in the health and safety module I did for my DCPC, you know the thing everyone says is pointless? I guess this guy didn’t do that module.
Conor:
Interestingly it was one of the things covered in the health and safety module I did for my DCPC, you know the thing everyone says is pointless? I guess this guy didn’t do that module.
That explains how I knew then , I must have woke up when he was discussing this.
Conor:
Interestingly it was one of the things covered in the health and safety module I did for my DCPC, you know the thing everyone says is pointless? I guess this guy didn’t do that module.
That explains how I knew then , I must have woke up when he was discussing this.
And it’s one of the things they drill into you when you do your “tipper card”
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said the casualty was out of the vehicle upon arrival. It said the cause was “accidental”.
Thats what probably did it, getting out to have a look instead of getting on the blower to the emergency services.
Rule 1. Never get out of the vehicle until someone confirms the power is off. Whilst you are in the vehicle you are isolated from ground. As soon as you get out and your foot touches the floor, if you’re still holding onto the vehicle all that current flows through you.
would you be aware that the vehicle was “Live” whilst sitting in it ?
For instance, in dry conditions with dry tyres and nothing else touching the ground; you raise tipper until it touches powerlines, so now you are effectively sitting inside a (lets say a 2KV ?) faraday cage. would you be aware of anything before you climbed out?
And what causes the fire, is that down to interference with the vehicle becoming “Live” and its own electrical installations, or is it more likely the fire would be the result of the vehicle arcing to the ground.
And all the best and a speedy recovery to the driver, horrible thing to have happened.
When I was on rigid six wheeled tippers I always had to raise the body to shift the load backwards when carting dry stone otherwise I couldn’t get the easysheet across and also the steering would be too heavy on the handlebars! I got very profficient at sprinting between the tail door and tipper controls in the cab to drop the body before it burst the taildoor open! I also stood outside the cab when tipping tar into barrows etc otherwise I couldn’t see what the material flow was like but ALWAYS checked for anything overhead, it was just a natural thing to do before tipping anywhere and I guess this lad was usually the same, only this time he either didn’t notice the wires or just forgot to check. Maybe he thought they were telephone cables? If he had actually been inside the cab he would have been insulated from the electricity, but the danger is when the driver abandons ship and touches the ground while still holding onto the cab.
I know when I went into a few different quarries they wouldn’t let you clean out on their premises, plus you had to have your sheet rolled open so that cameras could inspect inside the body or they wouldn’t issue a loading slip, a pain in the arse at times.
Sitting in the cab will only protect the driver if he hit one cable(1 phase), if he hit two cables(2 phases) it would be a different situation all together.
Sparkyphil:
Sitting in the cab will only protect the driver if he hit one cable(1 phase), if he hit two cables(2 phases) it would be a different situation all together.
Looking at the photo, it looks, to me, like he hit 3 cables.
Conor:
Interestingly it was one of the things covered in the health and safety module I did for my DCPC, you know the thing everyone says is pointless? I guess this guy didn’t do that module.
That explains how I knew then , I must have woke up when he was discussing this.
And it’s one of the things they drill into you when you do your “tipper card”
Ahh !..so even you are ganging up on me now as well O.b.
Conor:
Rule 1. Never get out of the vehicle until someone confirms the power is off. Whilst you are in the vehicle you are isolated from ground. As soon as you get out and your foot touches the floor, if you’re still holding onto the vehicle all that current flows through you.
would you be aware that the vehicle was “Live” whilst sitting in it ?
For instance, in dry conditions with dry tyres and nothing else touching the ground; you raise tipper until it touches powerlines, so now you are effectively sitting inside a (lets say a 2KV ?) faraday cage. would you be aware of anything before you climbed out?
No. There would be no current flowing through the vehicle as there is no path to ground due to the fact its sat on big rubber tyres so you could quite happily stick your hand out the window and touch the cab door as long as you were inside the vehicle as you’re totally isolated from earth. A Faraday cage is connected to ground so does have current flowing through it.
And what causes the fire, is that down to interference with the vehicle becoming “Live” and its own electrical installations, or is it more likely the fire would be the result of the vehicle arcing to the ground.
The fire is caused by that particular part that sets alight either being a point of high resistance in the path to ground and getting hot or there being a small gap where you get arcing like you would do with a mig or arc welder. To re-iterate, nothing at all would have happened until the driver was touching both the vehicle and the floor and therefore making the circuit between the power lines and the ground.
What winds me up is when you enter a quarry and they are not happy with the cleanliness of the buck they then tell you to leave the quarry and come back when clean. This results in accidents like this.
Quarries should be forced to provide a proper sweep/clean out area inside the quarry. After all they can dump the soil/stone/grain etc into the hole they have dug to extract aggregates.
I often see piles of grain that has been swept out of the buck just left abandoned in laybyes making a mess and food for rats etc.
Conor:
Rule 1. Never get out of the vehicle until someone confirms the power is off. Whilst you are in the vehicle you are isolated from ground. As soon as you get out and your foot touches the floor, if you’re still holding onto the vehicle all that current flows through you.
would you be aware that the vehicle was “Live” whilst sitting in it ?
For instance, in dry conditions with dry tyres and nothing else touching the ground; you raise tipper until it touches powerlines, so now you are effectively sitting inside a (lets say a 2KV ?) faraday cage. would you be aware of anything before you climbed out?
No. There would be no current flowing through the vehicle as there is no path to ground due to the fact its sat on big rubber tyres so you could quite happily stick your hand out the window and touch the cab door as long as you were inside the vehicle as you’re totally isolated from earth. A Faraday cage is connected to ground so does have current flowing through it.
And what causes the fire, is that down to interference with the vehicle becoming “Live” and its own electrical installations, or is it more likely the fire would be the result of the vehicle arcing to the ground.
The fire is caused by that particular part that sets alight either being a point of high resistance in the path to ground and getting hot or there being a small gap where you get arcing like you would do with a mig or arc welder. To re-iterate, nothing at all would have happened until the driver was touching both the vehicle and the floor and therefore making the circuit between the power lines and the ground.
Wrong I’m afraid. There is a current going through the vehicle going to ground through the tyres (which have a considerable amount of metal in them). Those sort of voltages don’t stop with a bit of rubber. The faraday cage bit is the fact that the current will find the path of least resistance, which is the metal frame of the car/truck. As soon as you touch any metal part you become the path of least resistance and hey presto instant bbq, especially if you are touching earth too.
msgyorkie:
What winds me up is when you enter a quarry and they are not happy with the cleanliness of the buck they then tell you to leave the quarry and come back when clean. This results in accidents like this.
Quarries should be forced to provide a proper sweep/clean out area inside the quarry. After all they can dump the soil/stone/grain etc into the hole they have dug to extract aggregates…
Sibelko at Godstone have a “please leave and come back when clean” rule. I can understand this as their sand is used for industrial purposes. A bit of muck in a tipper used for carrying crushed ■■■■■■■■ isn’t anything to worry about. I agree about firms providing cleaning areas. Smiths do at Gill Mill. All it is a simple fairly powerful hosepipe that runs off the washplant, with a concrete pad that drains into a silt lagoon. They did try and make it a “donate a £1 to charity to use the washdown” but nobody bothered.
So if your in truck and this happens, god forbid no phone, no one about,…
Would hitting the lines cook the truck, thus rendering you stuck in cab, and truck stuck in position? If yes what the hell would you do?
Could you open the door from inside, touch nothing and leap from cab without being injured?
The whole faraday cage thing fascinates me, anyone see top gear where Hammond sat in that golf iirc and they charged it with constant electricity from that sub station? Fascinating subject.
I was told on an MPQC card course that if you touch cables that you shouldn’t try to exit the cab unless it catches fire. If you do exit, it’s the only time you should jump from the cab, without touching it as you land.
Touching cloth is perfectly acceptable.
Benjie83:
Poor fella, proper speedy recovery wished to him
He either didn’t see them, or mis read them…
Question…
So if your in truck and this happens, god forbid no phone, no one about,…
Would hitting the lines cook the truck, thus rendering you stuck in cab, and truck stuck in position? If yes what the hell would you do?
Could you open the door from inside, touch nothing and leap from cab without being injured?
.
I think you would be fine if you jumped, as long as you don’t make the connection from “Live” truck to earth you would be OK, but if the voltage is massive 20k, then it can jump too, so to be on the safe side make as bigger jump as possible. … think of a bird sitting on a power line. the electric has no reason to flow through it.
I am still curious as to the effect on the vehicles electrical system, lets just assume for sake of argument the vehicle is 100% insulated from the earth through its tyres. If that vehicles body was made live with 2000 volts, what would happen to the vehicles electrics ? would the batteries blow, or could you just sit and listen to the radio until the rescue services arrived.
…(.yeh, I know, it does not usually bother me 
)
, I must have woke up when he was discussing this. 
I also stood outside the cab when tipping tar into barrows etc otherwise I couldn’t see what the material flow was like but ALWAYS checked for anything overhead, it was just a natural thing to do before tipping anywhere and I guess this lad was usually the same, only this time he either didn’t notice the wires or just forgot to check. Maybe he thought they were telephone cables? If he had actually been inside the cab he would have been insulated from the electricity, but the danger is when the driver abandons ship and touches the ground while still holding onto the cab. 