Touchstone Energy high voltage demonstration

"Too often these wires become an unnoticeable part of our landscape. Until you find out they have the power to do this."

(Joe Connot): "That's 7,200 volts of electricity going through your body."

A shocking, but choreographed scene. Gerald Draine, Mike Davis and Joe Connot are professionals -- Gerald and Mike, linemen; Joe, a lineman-turned-member services.

(Gerald Draine): "We're actually dealing with 7,200 volts. Everything you see is actually the way it works on the line."

The South Dakota Rural Electric Association owns the trailer, so co-ops can take the safety message anywhere. Like the main arena at the Black Hills Stock Show. Here 350 kids -- and adults -- watch and learn.

(Joe Connot): "A lot of these kids come back year after year. And they say, hey you're that guy who blowed that hot dog up. Yup. That's me."

(Mark Reindl): "This is my first time to this event. We've been to the Black Hills Stock Show many times. To see this demonstration for the first time, it was great!"

For Mike and Gerald, it's more than a demonstration of what's possible. It's a reflection of reality.

(Mike Davis): "Father's day, two years ago, it was a Sunday evening. My foreman, Gerald, and I were on call. Had a typical outage we went on. Things kind of went bad from there."

He slipped. He made contact -- 7,200 volts of electricity traveled through Mike's body, leaving him dangling by his safety harness.

(Mike Davis): "Gerald came up with the bucket truck. He unhooked my strap and got me down. The other, Jeff, the guy we were working with, helped me into the truck, and we went and met the ambulance right after that."

Mike spent eight days in a burn center in St. Paul. The electricity entered his right arm, left deep burns around his waist, and left through his right leg. His arm and leg required two sets of skin grafts each.

(Mike Davis): "I'm lucky to be alive, let alone to even be able to come back to my job and have my arm and my leg. So I'm very fortunate."

(Mike Davis): "The biggest thing I can say is don't ever get too comfortable with it, because that's when something's going to get you."

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Basin
• Electric
• Power
• Cooperative
• co-op
• Touchstone
• Energy
• high
• voltage
• demo
• demonstration
• electricity
• safety
• hot
• dog

[imfree707]

Gotta' love those power line safety demo trailer rigs! Stepping 120/240 Volts up to primary voltage makes nice long arcs and toasts hot dogs pretty well with the limited current available from such a rig. I often wonder if people are made aware that the demos are limited current/power and that real lines have hundreds and thousands of times the current available from a demo line.