by Clemuel
As you may have read in the paper, a Long Island employee was seriously hurt in Harold Friday when he fell from a signal bridge, striking both that catenary and a guy wire. He has serious internal burns and is in critical condition.
The employee was removing old wooden decking from the signal bridge in preparation for replacing it with Fiberglass decking. As 30 feet of the wood was removed, the employee was working over the live wire and track by climbing on the bridge ironwork. He was wearing a safety harness which apparently was arranged without consideration of the live wire below.
When he fell into the wire, his crew and a nearby track gang heard two explosions caused by his body shorting the wire. Nobody in his signal crew was trained in first aid and they feared taking action as he hung suspended from his harness.
Luckly two men on a nearby track gang were trained fireman or EMT's. They heard the explosion, climbed the bridge and hoisted the injured employee back up the bridge where they were able to carry him to safety. This was an excellent gang with one of the road's best foreman. If this signalman lives to see his family again, it will be thanks to this gang.
Service through Harold was restored somewhere around 2:30 PM.
Under OSHA guidelines, with which the Railroad usually does not have to comply, the wire would have to have been de-energized before employees could work this closely to it.
The employee was removing old wooden decking from the signal bridge in preparation for replacing it with Fiberglass decking. As 30 feet of the wood was removed, the employee was working over the live wire and track by climbing on the bridge ironwork. He was wearing a safety harness which apparently was arranged without consideration of the live wire below.
When he fell into the wire, his crew and a nearby track gang heard two explosions caused by his body shorting the wire. Nobody in his signal crew was trained in first aid and they feared taking action as he hung suspended from his harness.
Luckly two men on a nearby track gang were trained fireman or EMT's. They heard the explosion, climbed the bridge and hoisted the injured employee back up the bridge where they were able to carry him to safety. This was an excellent gang with one of the road's best foreman. If this signalman lives to see his family again, it will be thanks to this gang.
Service through Harold was restored somewhere around 2:30 PM.
Under OSHA guidelines, with which the Railroad usually does not have to comply, the wire would have to have been de-energized before employees could work this closely to it.