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JCP&L Brother dies in Contact

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Highplains Drifter
EL
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Post  EL Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:26 pm

Police & Fire

UPDATE: Forked River Man ID'd as Electrocution Victim

Rich Grande pronounced dead after work-related accident in Manalapan


By Elaine Piniat and Katrina Rossos
Email the authors
August 3, 2012


A Forked River man was electrocuted at around 10:30 a.m. Friday while working near the Rolling Thunder Horse Farm on Daum Road in Manalapan, according to Monmouth County officials.

Rich Grande, 20, was an employee of Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), according to assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Marc LeMieux. Grande was reportedly electrocuted from a high-tension power line, police said.

Englishtown-Manalapan First Aid and Manalapan police were dispatched to the scene where CPR was performed on Grande. Local fire departments and Monroe EMS also were requested to the scene. Grande was reportedly electrocuted from a high-tension power line, police said. Advance Life Support called a medevac to the scene and a landing zone was prepared, but the medical helicopter was eventually cancelled, according to police.

Grande was transported by ground to CentraState Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, LeMieux said.

Grande was a 2010 graduate of Lacey Township High School and a 2012 graduate of Brookdale Community College, where he studied at FirstEnergy’s Power Studies Institute.

He was hired by JCP&L along with 35 others in June as new line and substation workers.

Grande’s profile picture on Facebook depicts him climbing a tall utility pole while at work.

According to his Facebook page, he was an avid hockey fan.

“For those of you who don’t know, Rich played for our league for many years, won several championships and was a great hockey player,” a group member of Lacey Roller Hockey said. “Rich was a respectful and caring young man! You will be missed by all of us!”

Others remembered Grande as a “good friend,” “great guy” and the “best neighbor.”

“People like Rich Grande are very hard to find,” Megan Buchta said on Facebook. “He was by far the sweetest most caring person I have ever met. He would do absolutely anything for everyone. I am so blessed to have met him and become best friends. He changed my life and I'm going to miss him more than words can describe.”
Related Topics: JCP&L, Public Safety, and forked river nj
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Post  Highplains Drifter Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:10 pm

May this Young Man RIP.......
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Post  topgroove Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:35 pm

?????????
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Post  EL Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:06 pm

Havent got any details yet, dont know how much we will be told, but will keep you informed. Very very sad.
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Post  EL Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:30 pm

Still no new info on this electrocution. Had our monthly safety meeting this morning...many concerns brought up by linemen and yes some line foremen on understaffing and putting people in situations they are not ready for.


Just trying to get a feel for the norm out there....would appreciate feed back on how often you guys get your rubber gloves changed out. We are having some issues with rubber gloves.
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Post  rcdallas Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:40 pm

EL wrote:Still no new info on this electrocution. Had our monthly safety meeting this morning...many concerns brought up by linemen and yes some line foremen on understaffing and putting people in situations they are not ready for.


Just trying to get a feel for the norm out there....would appreciate feed back on how often you guys get your rubber gloves changed out. We are having some issues with rubber gloves.

We can change them out if we're not comfortable with them at any time.

Rubber gloves changed out every 6 months with a 12 month shelf life--Sleeves changed out once a year.
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Post  admin Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:25 pm

every 3 months our class 0, class 2 gloves and sleeves are changed out.

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Post  admin Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:46 pm

Rumor has it, the job was in a swamp and everyone was walking threw about a foot of soft mud.The wires were grounded including the down wire.There was a 500 kv line and other trans line passing over the affected wire.The young man tripped in the mud and fell into the down wire and made contact just above his rubber gloves.He was laying in the mud and was making contact with the down wire which had induced voltage.Another coworker was affected trying to pull the man off the wire but not seriously.This is not official but from a good resource.

Not sure what to say about this.... quite frankly, I'm not really buying the whole story. If a equipotential zone was established with the down conductor This young man would be alive today! I got a feeling this is the story the management team have conjured up.

The correct grounding procedure would have been to establish three phase grounds on both sides of the down conductor and a ground jumper across the down phase with driven grounds. That would have created a equipotential zone.

Maybe the nitt-witts at OSHA will buy the story but I'm having none of it. I can't prove it, I wasn't there.... but I got a feeling that, at best one set of grounds was applied at a structure that could be reached with a bucket.

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Post  CanadianLineman Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:09 pm

Within the first 2 hours after a fatal accident 2 things happen:

1. A meeting of company executive types including "safety" discussing liabilities, possible sanctions by an OSHA group and the key thing - shut your mouths.

2. Disinformation spread amongst the worker bees.

Of the way too many fatal accidents I have been a party to, but thankfully never 1st hand, few haven't been interfered with within a few hours. On one occasion (a non-fatal), because I happened to have a camera with me and I am a pretty good photographer, I had a couple of rolls of pics taken withing minutes of the accident. I had them developed and printed within the hour at Costco. I was Efen near fired and told to never bring a camera to the job - not ever again. The threats went on for the better part of a week because I refused to give up the negatives. In retrospect, if I had given up the negs I would have probably been looking for a new job.

I was much younger and a whole lot less jaded then. I have a Samsung GII S now and it has still and vid with sound as well as a voice recorder. If it turns out I witness an incident I film it then Text or E-mail the vid or pics to several friends immediately.

I have several credentials as a Safety Professional, in the construction and oil (both on & offshore) industry, and few will dick with me now. Too soon old - to late schmart.

God rest the sole of this young hero who gave his all to the trade and may God give peace to his family.
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Post  EL Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:43 pm

OK.....we were sent a safety gram today from some PPL employees(yes you read that right...PPL employees)
It was sent as a text so I cannot show the actual copy but will retype what it says word for word

Safety Gram
Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) Fatality

there is an Orange and Rockland symbol in the right hand corner

On Friday, August 3, a JCP&L lineman was killed and another apprentice was severely burned and remains in critical condition. They were part of a crew assigned to restore phases on a 34.5KV line that had come down during the recent storm. The line ran along a ROW that also had a 500KV circuit. Both apprentices had all their PPE on and the 34.5 KV line was properly grounded. One of the apprentices tripped in the ROW and landed on a downed phase(s). The induction was enough to burn him severely. The other apprentice ran over to get him off the line and was severely burned as well. Both were airlifted to a local hospital and one (Rich Grande) died in the helicopter.

This incident is a grim reminder of the hazards which we address in our industry on a daily basis.

The accident is still under investigation and additional information will be shared when available.

Some important safety tips to remember:

. Follow all operating and safety rules
. Observe all hazards in every job
. Communicate through job briefings
. Use all required PPE
. Watch out for each other and maintain situational awareness.

This is what was sent to us today, as I said, it came from a PPL employee.

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Post  admin Thu Aug 09, 2012 7:07 pm

I'm sorry but I feel in my heart that the story they are telling is a lie!
If the 34.4kv circuit was indeed properly grounded with equipotential grounds no way in hell would anyone be killed or injured! How stupid does the miss-management team at JCP&L think we are. Not only should they be held accountable, I feel that if they deliberatly miss represented and fabricated the facts involved in this fatality, they should face criminal charges.

With the bull shit lie they put out, I'm even starting wonder if the circuit was even de-energized.

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Post  Highplains Drifter Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:25 pm

EL wrote:OK.....we were sent a safety gram today from some PPL employees(yes you read that right...PPL employees)
It was sent as a text so I cannot show the actual copy but will retype what it says word for word

Safety Gram
Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) Fatality

there is an Orange and Rockland symbol in the right hand corner

On Friday, August 3, a JCP&L lineman was killed and another apprentice was severely burned and remains in critical condition. They were part of a crew assigned to restore phases on a 34.5KV line that had come down during the recent storm. The line ran along a ROW that also had a 500KV circuit. Both apprentices had all their PPE on and the 34.5 KV line was properly grounded. One of the apprentices tripped in the ROW and landed on a downed phase(s). The induction was enough to burn him severely. The other apprentice ran over to get him off the line and was severely burned as well. Both were airlifted to a local hospital and one (Rich Grande) died in the helicopter.

This incident is a grim reminder of the hazards which we address in our industry on a daily basis.

The accident is still under investigation and additional information will be shared when available.

Some important safety tips to remember:

. Follow all operating and safety rules
. Observe all hazards in every job
. Communicate through job briefings
. Use all required PPE
. Watch out for each other and maintain situational awareness.

This is what was sent to us today, as I said, it came from a PPL employee.




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Post  CanadianLineman Fri Aug 10, 2012 1:17 pm

Remember the second part I was talking about?? Well this is the dis-information. It always ends with, "This is still under investigation and you will be told more as the investigation proceeds."

Guess what - you will never see any other document from this company on this accident that will be for general consumption. Yes, there will be some stuff in safety minutes in some safety meetings somewhere but that will only serve to be more dis-information.

Unfortunately.

Our trade is one of the worst there is for this kind of "cover-up" and let's face it it is because there is so much money in the electrical utility industry nothing is ever exposed or exposes the industry to anyone looking in. This goes for the contractors as well.

Once I was on a crew that was working with a backhoe supplied by the Utility during a storm pole damage change out. We were gingerly clearing the earth around the pole by hand because we expected something might be around. We had the dirt cleared about 2 1/2 feet and decided to hold another tailboard because some of us had "that feeling" - you know? Well the backhoe had been sitting running all the time we poking around and when we re-grouped the backhoe operator, some relative of the district manager, decided on his own that he had had enough of us "contractor time wasters" and while we were "tailboarding it" put his bucket into the hole and started to remove the dirt.

Before any of us realized what was going on a "WHOOSH" so loud it nearly split ear drums happened as well as dirt and debris flying out of the hole. The "hoe" hit a 6 or 8" high pressure gas line that fed the northern part of Vancouver Island. It never found ignition - how I don't know - but did shut a major highway for about 5 hours. It took 20 minutes to shut the line down, by which time there was a cloud of gas all through the forest - still never found ignition.

Immediately I'm sure there was a meeting somewhere in the big city and usually a contractor, especially a two truck contractor that I worked for, would be removed immediately from the property. Well that manager must have had some juice because the whole mess just disappeared. No one ever talked about it again and no near miss was ever written.

You see, the liability was clearly on the Utility - no escaping it and no way to blame any worker bees. The whole thing, it appears, was witnessed by a curios customer with a video camera. I found out about the vid cam months later and only by accident - long after I had left that contractor. Turns out the cinematographer got the hell outta Dodge shortly after he realized he could be engulfed in a major serious fireball. I don't know the ins and outs of how that Video saved our jobs and reputations- only that it did.

That is just one case of the many I have witnessed where coverup and shifting blame, including a few I know of where the one blamed was not even on the site, makes this industry so wormy.

We are our own worst enemy as well. How often have you heard a linecrew commenting on a fatality saying it was the lineman's fault because of this reason or that? Even Apprentice industrial deaths are often blamed on the Apprentice. In my over 40 years in this trade it has never changed - probably never will I expect.

Too much money and political power in the electrical utility industry. Think not?? Think of Kenneth Lay and the ENRON scandal. That went international and clear into the White House.
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Post  rcdallas Fri Aug 10, 2012 1:42 pm

I've noticed that a great majority of safety rules are written in such a way that the company isn't liable for anything. It's always the worker along with the crew that is responsible in the way that the wording is used.

It all starts with "Individual Responsibility for Safety".

They get smart and don't put anything in writing. Safety only matters when it doesn't cost money.
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Post  CanadianLineman Fri Aug 10, 2012 3:35 pm

You have it in 1 Brother.

It all started in the 80s. Things shifted away from the direction the workplace had been headed for 100 years. From the 1880s workers rights were being gained often with serious fights - many workers were "murdered" by employers groups while all this was going on. Arguably the 70s were perhaps the best decade workers ever enjoyed in the history of man.

With the rise of the extreme wealthy right wing politics getting the likes Ronnie Raygun and Maggie Thacher into power and the propaganda finally convincing many "union workers" they no longer needed a union workers rights took a sharp turn downhill. Raygun firing the aircraft controllers and not provoking a national strike pretty much told the wealthy they had a free and open highway to crush 100 years of worker rights gains. Maggie Thatcher pretty much stomped all over the coal miners and Arthur Scargil including seizing a union owned bank and sold it to the highest bidder. It was so bad in the UK that you could almost be jailed for half a dozen union members meeting on the street regardless of what they were talking about.

Since the opening salvos against the working man and woman were fired in the early 80's our rights have been eroded year by year to the point that some places are starting to outlaw unions representing workers in the workplace and the unions that are allowed are controlled by the companies. I cannot tell you how many union places I have worked in the last decade where those who had always worked non-union for poor wages and benefits have been hired - they love the wages and bennies but hate the union, the dues and the union officials. Guess where those jobs are headed.

Same goes for jobsite safety. Companies have refused to pay for training and cannot see why someone else isn't responsible for the cost. They really don't care who, only as long as it isn't them. They have banks of lawyers to figure out how to skate on liability when someone is injurer of killed and have written language in where it is always the workers fault. Any training they do pay for is always designed to put liability on the worker and they get the worker to sign that they had the training and understand they are now responsible for jobsite safety.

I have been involved to a degree with designing "outs" or "get out of jail free cards" for employers because the training in safety I have is company based skip liability application based. I understand their desire and actions toward that goal.

Saying that I know how to throw large monkey wrenches into their well oiled machinery and have been known to do so. I have been blacklisted at times but in today's shortage on trained and skilled employees, and my certification is from a number of countries, it is pretty difficult to carry on a blacklist.

Suffice it to say our industry had suffered a seriously high number of fatalities in the last decade and most are to under trained "kids" in places they should never be put into. I cannot see it improving until there is once again a serious shift in the direction of workers rights. Until then wages and benefits will continue to be eroded, retirement ages will continue to climb, jobsite safety will continue to jeopardize workers and their families well being and general standard of living will continue its downhill race.

Ken
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Post  rcdallas Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:33 pm

I wonder if IO Rep Ed is accurate when he said the union's we're on the rise again. When I was at the negotiating table 2 years ago when the federal mediator came in he had said that there we're 11 million union members left and we're loosing 1 million members a year. That was two years ago so there should be 9 million left.

All this corporate crap we're we can do more with less. Yeah budgets are one thing but setting them with no tolerance is another all just so that the worker bee's get a small bonus check at the end of the year while management gets enough to go out and buy a luxury car.

Lack of maintenance; ok pay me now or pay me later.

Your right about the training Ken; it's just a sign off on liability--when I attended it's pretty much a pass just sign here. For anyone coming up all you can do is document document and document for yourself.
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Post  CanadianLineman Fri Aug 10, 2012 5:23 pm

I really see no evidence of increasing union membership. I'm 60 now and started working with utilities when I was 18. My dad and uncle were both linemen. I hit the last few years of the big expansion years of the grid that started in the 60s. The area I lived in is one of the most harnessed hydro electric producing rivers in the world, The Kootenay/Columbia system. I saw a lot of the dams being built and remember the big money jobs and construction camps back then. The government tried it's best to get along with the unions because they wanted the projects completed and if the unions pulled a big strike it wouldn't happen.

I was on the last Columbia Hydro project in BC in 1980. When that project was completed the gloves came off and the government attacked unions with gusto and the standard of living eroded to less than 1/2 of what it was then. BC went from glory status envied by most in the world to what is nearing a 3rd world country as far as standards and working conditions go. I would guess that less than a quarter of the union membership, I'm talking all union membership, in BC is the present state considering the "high" of say 1975. Of those that that still exist, like the IBEW, there is only a pale shadow of the commitment by members there once was. Hell near everyone shops their own contractor job here today a situation that would have you E-Boarded 40 years ago, and of the "dispatches" there is a 50% name request by the employer and "special circumstances" beyond that.

There is only a modicum of actual contract policing.

So really there is not a union here, certainly as I knew it, and it really isn't much better in most of the places I tramped. A Tramp really has to be cagy to survive and still try to be a good union man - that is where there is a union left.

Sorry, I just have no evidence that union membership is on the rise.
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