Fudge Duke Energy!!!!!1

[PonymanfiveO]

I good friend of mine, Mike Tillet was killed at a job site in Cincinnati Saturday morning. He was an electrician for Geiman Burkhart. I was just told that his death is the fault of Duke Energy for not shutting off the electric where he was.

Its so horrible. He was only a year or two older than me, married for less than a year and his wife is pregnant. This has been a pretty bad year so far.:(

[DeckerEnt]

Sorry to hear that. If it was duke's fault, I am sure the settlement will cover the wife and child for the rest of their lives. Doesn't replace the loss though.
Keith

[67Terror]

ever since Duke took over the company has gone to shit. they are replacing all of their "good" workers with cheap contractors

[PaulFiveOh]

Eh....are you sure it was dukes fault, I mean, a standard VMM can instantly tell if your source is hot or not...

But....I'm sorry for your loss.

[ponymom05]

Yeah, we're gonna' miss him. One of the good guys. I can't imagine (and hope I never have to) what Randy and Janie are going thru right now.

And not making less of our loss, but shouldn't a professional electrician(s) know better than to assume it was off? Tim said they weren't sure it was electrocution, may have been a heart attack, may or may not have been caused by electricity. But he's not saying much more, he was the one who found him, he's pretty upset. Rumors always fly in these cases.

RIP Mikey, thoughts and prayers to his family.

[cstreu1026]

This sucks! I knew him too. He used to hang out with a friend of mine. He was a good guy.

[92coupe]

Sorry for the loss, Thoughts and prayers to his family.

[Black Hole]

Sorry for the loss. :(

[Mista Bone]

never assume, use a voltmeter to verify!

Dad worked for CG&E for 25+ years, mostly out of Middletown/Todhunter Road site.

Sorry for the loss.......hate to see a working man lost.

Now if the power was locked out/tagged out and someone bypassed it to restore power, then whoever did that would be at fault.

This coming from someone blown off a ladder from a 440v 3 phase box with no service disconnect....copper pipe used for fuses......

NWVS (Northwest Vocational School) in 1985.

[PonymanfiveO]

Someone told me last night that it was turned back on too soon and without checking to see if anyone was working.

Either way, hes gone. His wife and family will never get to enjoy him again. His baby will never get to know him. I'll never get to share a laugh with him again.
Rest in Peace Mike, we love you.

Thanks everyone.

[mach_u]

That's so sad. :( I'm sorry to hear that. It's sad to see somebody go so young, especially with a young family. Thoughts and prayers are with them.

[bobtsgt]

damn Matt that sucks. Any type of electric work is dangerous. I'm sorry for your loss.

[nkystanger]

Sorry for the loss:(

[Holly]

I'm sorry to hear that Matt.

Duke Energy does as little possible as they can. I have a HUGE wire hanging from the side of the house, you would think they would do something about it. The insurance lady called me on it, so I called them. They came right out, and basically said "not our problem". I looked at the neighbors house, there is secured to the side of their house with brackets. Luckily my brother in law is an electrician, he is going to come down and put brackets on mine too. Why would they want anybody even messing with electric lines? LAZY PHUQERS.

[ihave1sweetride]

Sorry for the loss! Thoughts and Prayers for you and the family!

[REDHOTGTGIRL]

That's very sad! I am truly sorry for your loss. We'll be praying for his friends and family.

[cms91lx]

I worked with Mike when he worked for Edgewood Electric, i was sad when i heard the news monday, he was a great guy, its a damn shame he is not with us anymore

[Rob]

Sorry for your loss.:(
May he rest in peace

[ponymom05]

Someone told me last night that it was turned back on too soon and without checking to see if anyone was working.

Either way, hes gone. His wife and family will never get to enjoy him again. His baby will never get to know him. I'll never get to share a laugh with him again.
Rest in Peace Mike, we love you.

Thanks everyone.


And the story is different again this morning...either way we lost yet another great guy. You never know what you've go till it's gone. Hug those you love and make sure you say it everyday. You're never too old or too macho for a kiss goodbye. Love to all of you.

[VuNiT3]

I work for Duke Energy now, and they are a bunch of pricks where I work. It sucks that he was taken when he was just starting his life. You just never know when it's gonna be your time...

[bestracing]

Sorry to hear that Matt. I know it's been a rough year for a lot of guys on here and I hope it only gets better for ya from here out.

[FlatlineCowboy]

sorry for the loss R.I.P

[MystichromeVert]

I too knew Mike and his death is certainly a tragedy. I heard they were going to do an autopsy. Is that true? If so, has anyone heard the official cause of death?

As some of you know, I'm a former Cinergy employee who now works for Duke. I can agree with the comments above that Duke is managing this company backwards, not forward. However, safety has become a huge thing around here. They've even set it up so that upper management losses a significant portion of their bonus if there are any employee or contractor fatalities.

While I can't prove that it wasn't Duke's fault, I do have my doubts. I'm not saying it was Mike's fault either. I'm blaming Geiman Burkhart until I hear otherwise.

My brother-in-law used to work for G&B. He said it was routine for them to play games with their guys by telling them the power was off, then screaming that it's actually on right as the guys are getting into the circuits. Of course, the power would be off, but in my opinion there's no excuse for antics like that when working around something as dangerous as electricity. I was also told that Mike was working unsupervised on Saturday. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't unlicensed electricians always supposed to be supervised by a licensed electrician while they are working? Again, I put this on G&B's shoulders, not Mike's... he was just doing what he was told. The icing on the cake was G&B sending one of Mike's closest friends back to that same jobsite on Monday to finish the job. If they had any compassion at all, they would have sent someone else that wasn't as close to Mike to finish the job.

[Mista Bone]

He said it was routine for them to play games with their guys by telling them the power was off, then screaming that it's actually on right as the guys are getting into the circuits. Of course, the power would be off, but in my opinion there's no excuse for antics like that when working around something as dangerous as electricity.

IMHO someone would end up with a bullet in their head for those games, or have all three legs from 440v 3 phase attached to there privates and asked....."Is it on yet?"

CG&E

Cincinnati Gaft and Extortion

[Reef Blue LX]

In sorry for your loss also. I also am a duke lineman. The investigation report we were told is that they were converting a 240 3 phase configuration to a 277/480 volt configuration. After the transformer was changed the crew contacted the electrician in charge and was o.k. with it being energized. The duke crew was gone from the site when the accident happened. We were told that he was found with a burn mark on his forehead. I blame this on g/b for not following lockout tagout proceedures that are required by osha. Im not saying this was your friends fault, but the fault of g/b. They should not have had him working 277/480 volts by himself in a panel that should have a main disconnect to de energize the panel. As for Holly it was probably your service entrance cable that had come loose from your house, duke only owns the wire from the pole to the attaching point on your house. Again I am very sorry for your loss.

[IWRBB]

Arc flash maybe? He may not have touched a thing.

[Mista Bone]

Reef Blue LX, If I'm correct EVERY person working on a given line should have their lock installed.......there is a reason most have holes for 6 padlocks.

Incident @ John Morrell in 1999/2000. Maintance tagged out the 10,000 grinder while they were working on it, sanitation guy came by and FOLLOW OSHA rules he added his padlock. Repair crew were at lunch as they came back the sanitation guy was heading to lunch. Due to being behind he only took a 20 minute lunch, took the repair crew that long to quit fucking off (QFO repair)......sanitation guy went back to cleaning......

Repair crew not knowing whose padlock it was, CUT it off and fired up the grinder. My friends hand was in the blade area, took it off 2" above the wrist.

It was bullshit reasons like that I left John Morrell in TriCounty.......knew someone was gonna get hurt or killed, didn't want it to be me.

[Reef Blue LX]

Mista Bone , you are correct no other person should remove the lock of another person for safety reasons. The equipment that is tagged out should not be operated until every persons tag/lock has been removed. In the case of the fellow that was fataly injured from g/b, Duke was only responsible for energizing to the disconnect of the panel the rest of the isolation was the responsibility of the electricians and anyone else that was working on anything on the load side of the disconnect. No one should ever assume something is de-energized. They should always follow the the rule that if its not grounded its not dead. There may have been a lack of communication on g/b's part. It could have been a lack of training, or possibly a combination of both.

[MrsAPE]

that is awful!! so very wrong.