Local electrician dead; no lock-out

[brantmacga]

He was hooking up equipment in the new martin's famous pastry being built. There was no LOTO at the disconnect, and someone energized the circuit he was working on. I don't know any specifics; the two contractors I spoke to just said he was making connections to a motor. No article in the paper, only an obituary.

Carlton Ellis Jones, 50, of Hahira, passed away Monday, Aug. 4, 2008, in Lowndes County. He was born on April 17, 1958, in Ben Hill County to Carl Ellis and Beatrice Caswell Jones. He graduated from Irwin County High School in 1976. He was a great football player for Irwin County and was a member of the 1975 state champion team. After high school, he went on to college and played for Florida State University. After his college years, he continued to be a very devoted fan. Carlton worked 26 years for Valdosta Electric where he was called ?C.J.? He was a faithful member of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church where he was ordained as a deacon on Sept. 20, 1997. He loved and was loved by his church family. His favorite hobbies were hunting and fishing. He is survived by his wife. . . .children. . . etc. . .

That could be any of us. Be safe and teach your employees how to be safe. It only takes a minute to save your own life.

 

[cschmid]

Amen to that brother..

 

[brantmacga]

did more digging; found the article. not much more info.

Malynda Fulton
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA —
Members of Valdosta Electric are mourning the loss of a long-time employee who died on the job Monday after a tragic accident.


“Everyone at the company is grief-stricken at this time,” Valdosta Electric Owner Ashley Paulk said regarding the untimely death of 50-year-old Carlton Ellis “C.J.” Jones of Hahira, who was installing some equipment at Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe when he was electrocuted. “As a senior-level employee at Valdosta Electric, C.J. trained several young men and he was a good friend to everyone. He will be greatly missed.”

Jones was married with two daughters, one of whom attends Lowndes High School, and one a graduate of LHS, Paulk said. He had been an employee of Valdosta Electric for 26 years.

Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church.

 

[James@CHA]

Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it.

 

[nakulak]

Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it.

What you just said really angers me. He didn't ask for it. Like all new construction, there was probably a crew of guys in a big fat hurry to get the store opened, and like an awful lot of new construction, loto is spotty at best. Plants, hangars, bases, etc, - yeah, loto is ingrained. New construction ? its not like it should be. It needs to be better. Me heart goes out to his family, he was my age, and he's still got a kid in HS. He ASKED FOR IT ? I THINK NOT. He was not careful enough ? Definitely. Did some idiot energize something they had no business doing ? probably. We don't know all the details. And you might consider being kind.

*Edited for language by Ryan...although I agree with it originally said...

 

[zog]

You are responsible for your own safety. Period.

I feel bad for this guy and his family, but he didnt get run over by a drunk driver, he wasnt struck by lightning. and the bridge he was driving on didnt colapse. He fell victim to his own lack of safety procedures. Dont tell me a 50+ year old electrician didnt know to work under a LOTO.

 

[480sparky]

Not to mock the loss of a human life, but if I choose to polish my gun with a round in the chamber.....

I'm quite sure the guy didn't get up that morning, kiss the wife & kids, and say, "Well, I don't know if I'm going to be home tonight.... I'm going to do something unsafe on purpose....", but he most certainly left the opportunity for something like this to occur. And I'm not sure this should even be classified as 'an accident'.

 

[electricalperson]

this is horrible. the LOTO kit is probably one of the most important pieces of equipment an electrician should own. if your company doesnt supply one either buy your own or leave the company. i have my personal LOTO kit in my pick up and one in the van at work. such a simple thing so many people overlook because they think it wont happen to them. same goes for PPE gear. some cowboys think its not cool or what real electricians do. real electricians care about safety above anything else.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it.

Dude

I cannot believe what you said. No one asks for it like that.
I was energized once because some GC hooked up some temp lights himself. Unlike many jobs around the country small job do not mandate the EC to do all electrical. What this guy did was energize the metal of the light. No propblem unless that light is leaning on something metal and you just happen to ground yourself pretty good between it and the ground. Man I was locked on for almost a count of 6. It caused much pain and permanent damage to my biceps ,elbow and arm.

Today no-one is on my job without GFCI regardless if I am not the Authority. I get in quite a few heated arguments about it but I win this one. I don't even Allow perm power on a resi job untill almost every deivice is connected. I will not be responsible for some idiot flipping a breaker.

GEEZE

 

[brantmacga]

. . . there was probably a crew of guys in a big fat hurry to get the store opened, and like an awful lot of new construction, loto is spotty at best. Plants, hangars, bases, etc, - yeah, loto is ingrained. . . . ..

its actually a 220k sq. ft. bakery. 26/yrs & "senior-level employee", he knew better, but it was just one of those moments where he probably said, "it'll be okay if I don't lock out this time." I hate it for his family; we shouldn't be afraid of what we do, but always need to be cautious and respectful of electricity. Stories like this serve as a reminder that it only takes one lapse in judgement to end your life.

 

[mdshunk]

The home plant is one of my customers. I had lunch two weeks ago with the PM for that job in Georgia. Small world. Sorry to hear about that.

 

[LarryFine]

I hate it for his family; we shouldn't be afraid of what we do, but always need to be cautious and respectful of electricity. Stories like this serve as a reminder that it only takes one lapse in judgement to end your life.

Amen! :roll:

 

[jsharvey]

Loto

Loto

James@CHA says "Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it."

James, that is pure B.S. and totally uncalled for. People make mistakes and sometimes it costs them dearly. I don't know how much experience you have or don't have so I won't even go there but, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that at some point you have or will do something that from a safety aspect is questionable at best. Going out on a limb here but, WE ALL HAVE. It sounds from what little info was in the article that there we "unqualified" people operating breakers that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Wiring things up with no LOTO isn't a smart thing to do but perhaps there was a reason and since none of us were there all we can do is second guess his decision process and unfortunately learn another lesson at the expense of a brother.


J.S.Harvey

 

[mikeames]

Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it.

I assume then you LOTO every circuit you work on> 120 kills the same. Granted I tend to think twice when I work on 277/480 but hey thats just plain stupid because its not safe. You have no business saying he asked for it unless you LOTO every circuit you work on and I doubt that. God Bless the man.

 

[K8MHZ]

its actually a 220k sq. ft. bakery. 26/yrs & "senior-level employee", he knew better, but it was just one of those moments where he probably said, "it'll be okay if I don't lock out this time." I hate it for his family; we shouldn't be afraid of what we do, but always need to be cautious and respectful of electricity. Stories like this serve as a reminder that it only takes one lapse in judgement to end your life.

There are some companies where you will never make it to a 26 year senior employee if you demand to have all safety procedures applied.

Does "If you won't do it there are plenty that will for what we are paying you." sound familiar to any of you??

 

[mthead]

Local electrician dead;no lock out

Local electrician dead;no lock out

Just to relate my own story to show when you think nothing can happen something will-
2001-I was a doing a job with another experienced mechanic-obviously by the story nither of us was acting as a lead mechanic this day-basic reno of 2story home..,some snaked work,some open wall work.
2pm-I was in the kitchen relocating an existing 50A BX 6-3 range line-pushin' it back through bored holes that I can't for the life of me figure out how they got it through in the first place.Why was I doing this rather than run a new line?--because that was the way we did it-waste not want not and get it done.This is not to say that the boss wanted us to do anything that wasn't safe for ourselves or the installation--it meant "You are the Lead mechanic on the job -that's why you're the lead mechanic"
As I said however ,this day,this job,there was no lead mechanic because there were 2 lead mechanics on the job and there was a "Failure to comunicate".
I had disconnected the 50A Range breaker in the panel when I began working in the kitchen.
I was unaware of what my partner was doing and made the unfortunate mistake of assuming he was relocating /roughing some recpt work in the front bedrooms.
This home had a number of elec appliances-i.e. elec dryer,c/a/c unit,old elec baseboard heat.
My partner had decided that this was the perfect time to clean up the panel--he then decided to re-energize the breakers-including the one for the range line that I was relocating.
He neglected to discuss this with me.
HAD I TAGGED THE CIRCUIT I WAS WORKING ON THE STORY COULD END HERE-BUT I JUST PULLED THE BREAKER OFF AND FIGURED ANY IDIOT WOULD KNOW NOT TO JUST PUT IT BACK ON AND RE-ENERGIZE IT-----
I WAS AN IDIOT FOR ASSUMING ANYTHING.
The old line is "count on nothing and you won't be dissappointed".
With one hand pulling on the BX sheath the other hand landed on the 2-energized #6's and it's neutral as I tried to back it up thru another bay---!!!
AND I saw God,my 1yr old son Tanner,my wife family and buddies--it was a real adventure--in what I am told is an unsual thing to happen I was also able to scream the name of my on site partner until I ran out of breath and finally fell from the ladder-that's because I was ready to kill him.
Did I mention that I was frozen 7' up--it's an amazing thing in retrospect,however the burns on my hands and the sprained shoulder from being frozen like a shocked Frog in Biology class was no fun.

TRUST NO ONE-TAG A CIRCUIT WHEN YOU TURN IT OFF-IT TAKES 2 SECONDS AND IT MIGHT MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DYING A VIRGIN OR LEARNING WHO MAKES THE BEST CONDOMS IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND THE LOOKS--DO YOU GET IT!
Ok thats all I wanted to say.

 

[roger]

There are some companies where you will never make it to a 26 year senior employee if you demand to have all safety procedures applied.

Does "If you won't do it there are plenty that will for what we are paying you." sound familiar to any of you??

That's what OSHA and others are there for, if someone is going to loose a job for refusing to do something that may hurt or kill them, I say take the employer down on the way out the door.

James, I guess you have never had a cut, smashed finger, bruise, skinned knuckle, etc... since you obviously don't make mistakes, but let me educate you, those doing things will make mistakes and those mistakes are sometimes more than just a cut, smashed finger, bruise, skinned knuckle, etc..., sometimes it ends in death, but it was still a mistake.

Yes we are all responsible for our own well-being but, we are all human which means we are not perfect and sometimes the price for this is the ultimate price.

My condolences to the family and friends of this man.

Roger

 

[mthead]

Local electrician dead;no lock out

Local electrician dead;no lock out

By the way-I was far from a virgin thank god as should be evidenced by the mention of my son and so much more which I will not go into on an electrical site-BUT YOU MIGHT NOT BE SO LUCKY.

Ok -thats it -I think..,Just remembering that afternoon takes me to strange places--however I did finish relocating that range line--something about getting back up on the horse and visions of my mother tellin' me I better get it done or die tryin'.

 

[brian john]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not that the man deserved his fate, but if you have such disregard for electrical safety then he asked for it.

I am sorry buit this IS COLD, HEARTLESS and an possibly a very ignorant statement, Without knowing all the circumstances.

While LOTO should be a instinctive step it is possible circumstances may have such that it was not utilized. I was on a job where power was not on, so LOTO was not in use. Utility energized and through a variety of unfortunate missteps someone was severely burnt.

 

[dwellselectric]

What a shame