TN Lineman's Rodeo - the next time that you or someone that you know

[tnlefty]

is frustrated or complaining about power outage please consider:

My husband is attending the lineman's rodeo this weekend. He was on the steering committee to get this off the ground (pun there), he has been involved in strengthening the requirements for apprenticeships, and has been involved in safety for many years. He ensured that all of the safety regulations that would apply in a lineman's day to day work were incorporated in the rodeo events. IOW, if a safety violation occurred during an event points were deducted and depending on the severity of the violation major points were deducted, just another way to instill safety practices.

During the awards dinner the deaths of 4 linemen were observed. The individual winner last year of the rodeo was killed last Sunday, another lineman was killed when he fell from a pole and 2 lineman from a major contractor in our area were severly burned during this past year. Most of these accidents occurred during outages and fatigue was a factor. I know that when my husband worked in a line crew fatigue was the one thing that used to scare me the most. No matter how experienced a lineman is, and with a substantial amount of safety training, accidents happen most frequently when storms hit, people are working many hours with little sleep and they are more prone to accidents.

Unions are still important, even though TN is a right to work state (aaarrrggghhh) because they teach safe practices. And even though the repugs want to cut funding for OSHA, and thus render it ineffective, it is still very important.

My heart is out to those families who lost loved ones. To those burned, I hope that you continue to recover.

Congrats to Holsten Electric, Clarksville Electric and to Jackson Energy, in that order, and to those won individual events. Good job!!

And thank you Dickson for hosting the rodeo this year.