Vermont Electric Cooperatve line worker fatal injury

VEC Mourns Loss of Line Worker March 22, 2012


Johnson, VT- A Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) line worker sustained a fatal injury on Wednesday afternoon while working on an electric utility line on the Sawmill Road in Essex, Vermont. Bruce Lamb (56), a VEC line worker with more than thirty years of experience, died at the scene of the incident where he was conducting routine maintenance work with another VEC line worker.

VEC CEO David Hallquist reported to the scene immediately upon hearing of the incident and an investigation is underway. “It is critically important for us to determine the factors which led to this tragic outcome. At this point it is too early to draw final conclusions,” said Hallquist. Further information will be reported as details become available.

“The Vermont Electric Cooperative family grieves today for the loss of a beloved co-worker,” continued Hallquist. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Bruce Lamb.”

ESSEX — Atop the utility pole, seasoned lineman Bruce Lamb had all but finished the routine task of replacing a cutout, a device that halts the flow of electricity through the line. Lamb’s team had cut the power Wednesday as a precaution while workers limbed trees in the woods off Sawmill Road in Essex.

"They had essentially just reenergized the line, the last step before leaving the job," said Lamb’s boss, Dave Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative in Johnson. "Bruce had actually lowered all of his tools from the line, and basically the job was complete."


Hallquist said Thursday afternoon that the utility and Essex police had yet to determine what then caused Lamb, 56, of Waterville to be electrocuted.


"We saw the grounds there and the proper things that should have been there," Hallquist said. "We’re going to keep escalating this until we find out what the root cause was."


Hallquist said he responded to the scene as rescue workers tried to resuscitate Lamb. He later delivered the news of the man’s death to his family. Lamb, who worked for 32 years as a lineman for Vermont Electric Cooperative, is survived by his wife, son, and two daughters, the youngest of whom is in gradeschool.


"It’s an awful event," Hallquist said.


The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration has joined Essex police in investigating Lamb’s death, Detective Lt. George Murtie said.


"We’ve turned over all the tools that we recovered on the job site" to VOSHA, Murtie said. "I suppose, if there is serious, serious negligence on somebody’s part, that it could move into the criminal arena. But that would be a longshot, I think."


Hallquist said Vermont Electric Cooperative has called in an engineering firm from Virginia to also inspect the site.


A coworker of Lamb’s working on the ground at the time of the electrocution radioed his dispatcher and said to call 911, according to Murtie. Essex police and fire and rescue crews responded at about 1:25 p.m. Wednesday to the report of a man hanging from an electrical wire. A few minutes later the man was reported as unconscious, according to public safety radio comments. The man had suffered electrical burns.


Murtie said investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy, which might yield more information about Lamb’s death.


Sawmill Road is a rural, dead-end road off Hanley Lane, near the Essex-Jericho line on Vermont 15. Lamb climbed the pole, as a bucket loader would not have been able to cross the muddy road, Hallquist said.