PUC asked to investigate power lines in Irwin death
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An attorney representing the family of an Irwin woman killed by a fallen power line is calling on the state Public Utility Commission to investigate procedures by FirstEnergy Corp. that he says caused the line to fall and could have left thousands of others across the state loosely tethered to their poles.
In a letter to the PUC's five commissioners, Philadelphia attorney Shanin Specter says linemen at Allegheny Energy are taught to clean conductors with knives, pliers or wire brushes, even though the manufacturer's instructions say only wire brushes properly clean the oxides that can erode a wire's tenacity. A copy of the letter was provided to the Post-Gazette.
Mr. Specter says his discovery in the case revealed a company training program that strayed from specific manufacturer instructions and led to improperly cleaned power lines. In testimony quoted in the letter, employees from the manufacturing firm say the conductor that failed and killed Carrie Goretzka of Irwin had been improperly cleaned.
The Allegheny Energy workers quoted in his letter to the PUC promise to be more specific about which tools are acceptable for cleaning conductors.
PDFMr. Specter's call for a statewide search for other vulnerable wires comes at a delicate time for Greensburg-based Allegheny Energy, which merged with Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy in early 2011 and has been introducing the company to its new customers. After the merger, the Allegheny Energy offices became the new regional headquarters for another subsidiary, West Penn Power.
All three entities are named in the suit brought by Mr. Specter on behalf of the family of Ms. Goretzka, an Irwin mother who died in June 2009 three days after a 7,200 volt wire fell and struck her in her backyard. She was shocked and caught on fire, and workers from the power company had to arrive before the line could be removed from her body.
According to Mr. Specter, the line fell because the conductor connecting it to the pole was not cleaned with a wire brush before insertion into a splice, causing oxides to pile up and overheat. When oxides overheat, they can cause the line to catch fire or detach from the pole.
The splice in Ms. Goretzka's backyard, a model called Fargo GL4042A that's manufactured by Hubbell Power Systems Inc., comes with instructions that the conductor is to be cleaned with a wire brush. Several of Mr. Specter's interviews with Allegheny Power linemen, however, revealed training instructions from the company school that allowed cleaning to be done with a knife or pliers.
A knife or pliers wouldn't thoroughly clean oxides that can rest in grooves on a conductor, according to testimony by Jason Bundren, the business unit manager for distribution connectors at Shelton, Conn.-based Hubbell.
"We don't use a knife to brush our teeth," Mr. Bundren is quoted in the letter as saying. Mr. Bundren and a Hubbell colleague each inspected the conductor that fell onto Mrs. Goretzka and told Mr. Specter it had not been properly cleaned before installation.
West Penn Power would not comment on its training techniques. The company issued the following statement: "While our sympathy certainly goes out to Carrie Goretzka's family, we cannot comment due to the ongoing litigation."
The discrepancy in what tools are acceptable appears to come from what teachers are saying at Allegheny Energy's training school; the company's Transmission and Distribution Construction Standards instructs linemen to clean conductors with a wire brush.
An Allegheny Power trainer deposed by Mr. Specter said he'll make sure his workers have wire brushes from now on.
"We'll review this, and they'll follow the instructions," Bruce N. Bachman, a trainer at Allegheny Power's lineman school, is quoted as saying.
Mr. Specter said the company's improper training puts thousands of lines across Pennsylvania at risk for falling and harming more people.
"Are they going to inspect these lines?" he said.
Power lines most often fall due to inclement weather or blunt force, such as a car crashing into a pole. It's hard to say just how often lines fall, though, because utility companies only have to file reports to the PUC about downed power lines or equipment that failed because of storm damage.
No adverse weather conditions were occurring when the line fell in Mrs. Goretzka's backyard. Mrs. Goretzka's family filed a suit against Allegheny Energy in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas about one month after her death, alleging wrongful death, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The family seeks unspecified damages.
PUC commissioners can refer letters like Mr. Specter's to the agency's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement for an independent review and possible prosecution, said PUC press secretary Jennifer Kocher.
These "FYI" letters come in "fairly regularly" from residents, said Ms. Kocher, but "fortunately we don't have a lot of tragedies, so someone whistleblowing on something like that doesn't occur often."
First Published January 17, 2012 12:00 am
