Powerline Swinging 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Wolf Point, MT.
I work as a dispatcher for a utility company that serves the greater midwest states. As a dispatcher I am called upon to send out our service and construction teams to various appointments we have each day. I am also responsible for over-seeing that we have people available to respond to emergency situations on a timely fashion. It is in this capacity that I encountered the story I am submitting today.
At about 10 minutes to 6pm last night I received a call from the Wolf Point 911 Center asking that I send a service person or engineer out because of some potential damage to our power lines. When our service person arrived at the scene, he arrived to find that 3 youth had slung a power cord over a "live" electric transmission line and were taking turns swinging back and forth on the extension cord. The extension cord is insulated but, if you have ever looked up at a transmission line you will see that they are not. Two things (of many possiblities) could have quickly ended this giving us Darwin Award Candidates, 1. a frey in the extension cord could have energized and quite possibly melting the isulation that isn't suited for the current of transmission lines exposing the youth to electrical shock, or 2. The weight of the kids hanging and swinging from the line could have seperated a splice bringing the line down to the ground. Fortunately, a bystander had seen the kids swinging and called the police and 911 had alerted us.
After talking with the serviceman after his responding to this he explained that this is the 3rd time these same kids have been caught swinging on the lines, so watch for headlines coming out of Wolf Point in the future, where there are 3 youth residing dedicated to becoming Darwin Award Winners. Submitted on 08/06/2002
Submitted by:
tinhorse
Reference:
8/5/2002
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