Having Witnessed or experienced an on-the-job accident, whether a near miss or a fatality, forces linemen to move the issue of safety from their heads to their hearts. The following are the stories of three linemen — Steve Bleifus of Entergy Arkansas, Jim Handley of Southern Company and Steven Crone of Dominion Power — and how their attitudes toward safety were shaped by their experiences.

Near Electrocution Changes Mindset

Steve Bleifus has worked for Entergy Arkansas for the past 18 years, first as a lineman and now as a safety specialist. An accident changed his outlook on life. He has since decided to devote his career to improving the safety of his workplace.

As a young serviceman working in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Bleifus got a call to work a storm. He was dispatched to a lights-out call, where only one customer was without power. He found one switch open on a three-phase system with a conductor that had broken off from the open switch. He was in a hurry to get the customer's lights back on, so he went up in his bucket planning to reattach the jumper. He was confident that the line was dead and didn't put on his rubber gloves, a poor assumption on his part.

“I was young and thought I was bulletproof,” Bleifus says. “I was alone in the bucket when I made contact with the energized conductor. Fortunately for me, the bucket was set at an angle and that kept me from falling out of the bucket and to the ground. My knees buckled, and I just dropped inside the bucket. Even at that point, I didn't realize what had happened. I managed to stay conscious and was able to lower myself back down to the ground. My fellow workers came to my rescue.”

Bleifus was rushed to the emergency room, where they treated one small entry wound and exit wound on his hands. The current went in one hand and out the other, and the doctors told Bleifus it should have killed him. He stayed in the hospital for several days.

While he was unaware of the three-phase delta bank, he says he didn't follow the proper procedures. After the accident, he received disciplinary action and a few days off. His manager told him that he wasn't doing it to punish him, because he had already learned his lesson. He also told him that he hoped it would serve as a lesson to the next person who thought about not following proper procedures.

A few days at home provided Bleifus with the opportunity to reflect on his poor attitude toward his work. The accident shook his confidence, and he was nervous and ashamed when he went back to work. In time, Bleifus managed to get over the event, having learned a lot about the importance of safety that day.

Even after he restored his confidence, his family was still suffering. “I'm not sure to this day that my wife is over it,” says Bleifus. “She heard what the doctor said about me being lucky to be alive, and I know she worries every day I go to work.”

The accident changed his view of what a good lineman should be. He now preaches safety to all the other linemen. Looking back, Bleifus wishes the accident never happened. “In fact, I'm embarrassed by it,” he says. “I try to help others through my mistake. It's one reason I decided to become an Entergy safety specialist.”

Eye of the Storm

The near electrocution put Bleifus's focus on safety. Years later, two hurricanes came along to reinforce his commitment to safety. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast. Bringing power back was critical to restoring a semblance of sanity to those affected. Battling to bring the grid back after the horrific damage inflicted left an indelible safety footprint on Bleifus, as well as the entire Entergy field workforce.

Bringing back the system proved to be the most difficult work the Entergy linemen had ever faced. They endured a grinding schedule and unfavorable conditions.

Entergy crews paid careful attention to safety, because the linemen were working away from home and out of their comfort zone. “Because we were working in a different environment, we could take nothing for granted,” recalls Bleifus. “You check, double check, even triple check. You point out the obvious. You talk about hazards.”

Every morning, crews had briefings about what they might face during the day, with each day's assignments well thought out. “We all looked out for each other,” he says. “We all wanted to get back home safely to our families.

“What we learned about safety and work practices under extremely challenging conditions in responding to Katrina and Rita is making us a better company.”

How Safety Guidelines Came Into Being

Jim “Bubba” Handley put in a good 43 years in transmission at Southern Company (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) before retiring. Because Handley came into the business of line work when many of the safety rules were first being established, he has a firsthand perspective of how things used to be. When Handley was coming up, there were no national safety guidelines and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration didn't even exist.

Handley acknowledges that safety rules are hard to establish and even harder to follow, especially when crews are used to doing things a certain way. “What made following safety procedures easier for me was that I was there when the guidelines were written,” states Handley, “We carried a lot of the procedures around in our head. Everyone knew the proper way to do things, and we passed it on to the apprentices as they came on.”

Handley has seen more than a few close calls and accidents in his years as a lineman. When an accident occurred, the company would bring in all the workers, sit them down and ask them what they needed to do to prevent it from happening again. Management would review the incident and, when necessary, establish procedures that everyone was expected to follow.

Handley is proud to have worked at what he considers an extremely safety-conscious company He takes pride in the fact that many of the procedures developed through these reviews have been integrated into the safety guidelines followed by Georgia Power (Atlanta) today. These practices were shared with other utilities, and some became standards for the industry.

“I guess because I have seen firsthand where some of the rules came from, I became a believer in following them,” Handley explains. “In some cases, I can go to the company safety manual and point to rules that came about because of a close call or an accident that I remember happening.”