# Idiot Foreman.



## flyboy (Jun 13, 2011)

So glad you didn't suffer any serious injury, or worse Chewy. There's no doubt you learned a valuable lesson going through this incident. Don't beat yourself up over this.

Your good technician/electrician and this will make you even better.


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

Jeeze, Chewy, thats rough. Glad you're OK though. 

What a ....damned moron that foreman is.


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

Im guessing the excavator had steel tracks, so the fault was from hot to earth. Instantaneous fault for less than a second traveling through the earth and earth alone is not gonna trip a descent sized breaker at those low voltages


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## Black Dog (Oct 16, 2011)

Good that you are okay Chewy, that foreman needs a beating...:no:


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

That mag strip idea sounds pretty smart. Does it work like a shunt trip?


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

sbrn33 said:


> That mag strip idea sounds pretty smart. Does it work like a shunt trip?


My guess is it is his description of the caution buried electrical lines tape that has a magnetic strip sewn into the tape fabric making it easy for locators to find it with their wands.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

mcclary's electrical said:


> Im guessing the excavator had steel tracks, so the fault was from hot to earth. Instantaneous fault for less than a second traveling through the earth and earth alone is not gonna trip a descent sized breaker at those low voltages


It had rubber tracks, only a smaller excavator, I believe it just went phase to phase inside the hole.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

macmikeman said:


> My guess is it is his description of the caution buried electrical lines tape that has a magnetic strip sewn into the tape fabric making it easy for locators to find it with their wands.


Yeah thats correct.


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

chewy said:


> It had rubber tracks, only a smaller excavator, I believe it just went phase to phase inside the hole.


Oh damn, it should have tripped something then.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

mcclary's electrical said:


> Oh damn, it should have tripped something then.


Well I thought so in my limited experience and I at least thought some investigation was required into why it didnt. I was just there fitting off a data rack for the new build so wasnt too up with the play.


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## xpertpc (Oct 11, 2012)

Good god the arrogance of the foreman is mind-numbing, what you did was right in telling the excavator operator to not move or touch anything, getting too close to the hole may not have been in your best interest.

I don't necessarily like the old adage that says "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" as that idiot foreman wasn't in the hole and in most likelihood will not learn from it until he kills someone.

The real solution would have been to freeze in place and kill the circuit, ground all the conductors and only then remove the operator.


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

chewy, as a routine matter of course you should go to your eye doctor, tell them what happened, and have them examine and photo your eyes for any permanent or future damage. most arc-eye is temporary, but there can also be long term stuff.

I've been in and around several accidents and near misses similar to yours, and the worst response is to be cavalier about the danger. having the operator back away, securing the area, and doing a careful investigation and make safe is always priority 1. otherwise things go from bad to worse. glad you are ok.


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

chewy said:


> Yeah thats correct.


Damn. How does the excavator bucket look? I bet a phase to phase fault across a tooth must have made a nice little notch.


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## xpertpc (Oct 11, 2012)

wildleg said:


> chewy, as a routine matter of course you should go to your eye doctor, tell them what happened, and have them examine and photo your eyes for any permanent or future damage. most arc-eye is temporary, but there can also be long term stuff.
> 
> I've been in and around several accidents and near misses similar to yours, and the worst response is to be cavalier about the danger. having the operator back away, securing the area, and doing a careful investigation and make safe is always priority 1. otherwise things go from bad to worse. glad you are ok.


I had an arc flash experience that took several weeks and cocaine drops along with eye patches to heal, the pain actually got worse before getting better.


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

xpertpc said:


> I had an arc flash experience that took several weeks and cocaine drops along with eye patches to heal, the pain actually got worse before getting better.


yeah, I have a big scar in the middle of one of my eyeballs, and something else called a terrigium (sp ?) from long term exposure, so my doc takes a pic whenever I go in for new glasses to track the things. vision not affected yet (knock knock)


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

Going_Commando said:


> Damn. How does the excavator bucket look? I bet a phase to phase fault across a tooth must have made a nice little notch.


It had some marks on it but I think the second time he just may of touched insulation and knocked 2 bare ends together.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

wildleg said:


> yeah, I have a big scar in the middle of one of my eyeballs, and something else called a terrigium (sp ?) from long term exposure, so my doc takes a pic whenever I go in for new glasses to track the things. vision not affected yet (knock knock)


I went to the eye doctor recently and they could tell I that I had had a large bit of steel embeded in my eye, I dont notice it.


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

hope your doing ok there chewy
someone needs to find that idiot and tell him to pull his head outta his @$$ so they can kick it repeatedly for his stupidity
(his butt, not his head which is evidently filled with rocks)


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

wildleg said:


> yeah, I have a big scar in the middle of one of my eyeballs, and something else called a terrigium (sp ?) from long term exposure, so my doc takes a pic whenever I go in for new glasses to track the things. vision not affected yet (knock knock)


slang name is surfers eye
heres the info on it
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001011.htm


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## duque00 (Sep 11, 2008)

Hope you are OK Chewy.

What happen to the foreman - did he get toasted as well?


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

New name- Chewy Kablooey.


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## eejack (Jul 14, 2012)

I must agree on getting your eyes checked sooner than later. Glad you are okay and no one got hurt.


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## local134gt (Dec 24, 2008)

Hindsight is 20-20 but like we are always told, trust nobody and always test for voltage! But I can see how in the heat of the moment you would believe him and think the circuit must have tripped.


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## local134gt (Dec 24, 2008)

When I was an apprentice we had to change out a transformer on a Saturday. It was 3 journeymen 1 foreman and myself. The foreman was late as usual so one of the JW's took charge and shut down the xfmr and started stripping it down. 2 of the JW's were working on the xfmr while I grabbed tools/material for them, the other JW wasn't doing much if anything (she wasn't the best worker)

When the foreman finally showed up he was all gunho and saw her not doing anything, so he figured he'd have her take some buckets out of the gear. He assumed the entire service was shut down...... It wasn't only the xfmr being swapped was shut down! There were 3 buckets she was attempting to remove, luckily the explosion happend on/in the one above her head. It was the loudest/brightest/hottest thing I've ever experienced. 

The explosion made her pass out twice. She spent the rest of the day in the hospital getting checked out and somehow she was luckily unscathed!


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