Absent: Joe Joaquim (PG&E Gas), Dane Moore (PG&E Electric), Al White (PG&E Restoration), Mark Flanders (SMUD)
Carlos Rodriguez (Utility Tree Service) – A crew was removing a tree that was 20” around and the crewmember working the bucket removed the limbs and then decided to cut the trunk. The tree laid back on the chainsaw trapping the chainsaw. The crew decided to push the tree free of the saw with the aerial lift and while doing that the trunk adjusted throwing the man out of the bucket. The tree trimmer was attached to a lanyard and did not fall to the ground but sustained one broken leg.
Dan Boschee (Frontier Communications) – Frontier had a safety rodeo at the Elk Grove site including truck inspections/driving safety. During the inspections, the instructor placed a baby doll in the wheel well to see if anyone noticed during the safety walk around, and some people did not see the baby. Frontier has had few motor vehicle accidents, but recently an employee rear-ended a third party vehicle at thirty miles per hour (a light turned green and the third party was hit at the intersection). The cause of the accident has not been conclusively determined yet. Frontier has a policy on phone use which relates to no texting or phone use while driving, however employees are still being dispatched by phone from supervision.
Mike Gomes (MID)- Mike has been appointed to the MID company safety committee. He will be representing the line group. The company is in the final stages of purchasing fall restraint equipment and each person will select either the Bucksqueeze or Gelco. Members have been trying to figure out how to quickly cut a hurt lineman out of a pole in the new climbing equipment that has full time attachment. The equipment hinders the ability to cut a person loose quickly to complete a rescue. There have been a few accidents that have occurred with parked vehicles. Drivers have turned or backed into vehicles causing minor damage. The company safety committee recommends avoiding parking the vehicle or park in areas where you can only drive forward. MID’s downtown office is being upgraded to secure barriers and segregated office areas. The security upgrades are an attempt to better control customers or vendors who come in off the street. There have been incidents of unidentified persons having access to the building without notice to the company.
IBEW Form 173 Logs: Fifteen additional logs were entered into the IBEW I/O database reporting accidents that have been recorded. To date 27 reports have been submitted by the H&S committee based on OSHA 300 logs collected at the beginning of 2015.
Yard Safety Inspections Started: By July 1, inspection teams will have completed safety walk-throughs for six yards targeted to restart an overall yard inspection program at PG&E. Business representatives Anthony Brown, Ralph Kenyon, Casey Salkauskas, Kyle Whitman and Landis Marttila secured three volunteers from each yard for the program. The safety inspections will be evaluated and the system wide roll-out is scheduled for the Fall.