Workers on Jeroen van der Stoel’s crop farm near Enchant, Alta., are lucky to have escaped with their lives after a tractor came into contact with an overhead power line in 2010.
“The fact that this power line contact didn’t kill anybody is incredible,” said Ron Egeland, the FortisAlberta lineman, who was first on the scene.
The contact occurred when workers where lifting grain bins into hoppers with the help of a crane attached to the tractor.
The driver inadvertently backed into the power line while the crane was extended, causing the cab of the tractor to instantly ignite. The driver quickly put the tractor in drive to break free of the contact, then jumped from the vehicle.
As the tractor, still in drive but without an operator, circled back toward the power line, another worker somehow managed to reach into the flame-engulfed cab and turn off the power. This quick thinking prevented another contact and the potential of harm that would have come with it.
“There could have been two or three fatalities if that line would have come down,” Egeland said.
As farming season begins, FortisAlberta is encouraging all farmers to prevent a scene like the one on van der Stoel’s farm by familiarizing themselves with power lines on or near their land.
“Every year, we have an average of 275 incidents (with overhead power line contacts),” said Kevin Haslbeck, communications advisor for FortisAlberta.
He added, as of March 31, there have been 45 contacts with FortisAlberta power lines, including 17 trucking incidents, 14 from construction industries and two from farm-related equipment, which happened before farming season began.
Haslbeck said the driver and workers involved in the van der Stoel incident in 2010 were very lucky.
“That power line they contacted with, was a 14,000-kilovolt line. That is a significant amount of power,” he said.
He said if the line had been taken down, the ground in a 10-metre radius from the downed line would have been energized.
“If that had been taken down, that had the potential to electrocute all the workers,” Haslbeck said.
Luckily there are some simple steps FortisAlberta suggests farmers can take to minimize the risk:
• Store hay, grain bins and other equipment and vehicles away from overhead power lines
• Never attempt to lift or measure a power line yourself. Contact FortisAlberta to determine the power line clearance heights on your land and consider where the contour of the land may reduce this distance
• Know the height of your vehicles including the added height of extendable or attached parts such as spray water hoses
• Never spray water hoses or irrigation pivots at power lines
• Maintain a distance of at least seven metres between equipment and power lines
In the event of contact with a power line, FortisAlberta suggests:
• Unless the vehicle is on fire, tell the occupants to stay inside the vehicle
• If the vehicle is on fire, jump away with your feet together, then bunny hop or use small shuffles to get away from the area. Open strides may enable current from the energized ground to travel through your body
• Call for help and remain at least 10 metres away
• Try to break the vehicle free from the contact only if it doesn’t cause further risk to yourself or others, or more serious damage to the power line
• Never touch an energized object, such as a vehicle, when you are also touching the ground
“My hope it that everybody learned from this incident,” said van der Stoel in the press release. “We moved the grain bins away from the power lines and posted ‘Where’s the Line?’ stickers in all the trucks to remind us to always check for power lines. We haven’t had an incident since.”
For more information and a video on power line safety for farmers, visit fortisalberta.com or contact 310-WIRE (9473).
“It could have been much worse though,” said van der Stoel, “you can replace a tractor, but you can’t replace a life.”
