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A fatal accident involving a downed power line took the life of an Irwin, Pennsylvania, woman in June of 2009. In the wake of the accident, a personal injury attorney has urged the state Public Utility Commission to conduct an investigation, hoping to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future.
The lawyer is pursuing a wrongful death claim against Allegheny Energy on behalf of the accident victim’s family and has asserted that improper cleaning procedures used by company employees resulted in the fall of the power line and the woman’s subsequent death.
The accident exposed the woman to a full 7,200 volts of electricity after the power line hit her in the backyard of her home. The shock caused the woman to ignite in flames, requiring assistance from electric company workers to get the live wire off of her injured body. Three days later, the woman died as a result of her injuries.
The woman’s attorney argues that the power line fell because of the way a conductor was cleaned before being inserted into a splice. While manufacturers indicate that electrical conductors should be cleaned using only wire brushes, the electric company’s linemen allegedly sometimes used pliers or knives.
Such methods, the attorney argues, can be ineffective in cleaning the oxides that can build up in the grooves of a conductor, which can result in the overheating and detachment of the power line.
This improper cleaning method was allegedly used on the downed power line involved in the woman’s death. The attorney alleges that through interviews, it was also determined that these improper cleaning methods being taught at the electric company’s training programs for linemen.
If these methods continue to be used to clean other power lines, the attorney warned, potentially thousands of other persons in Pennsylvania could be at risk of injury or death in the future from downed power lines.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “PUC asked to investigate power lines in Irwin death,” Erich Schwartzel, Jan. 17, 2012