By Rob Mahon

SaskPower urges farmers to “look up and live” during harvest

Aug 23, 2022 | 11:21 AM

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — According to SaskPower, they reliably see an increase in collisions with power poles and lines at two points during the year: in the early spring when seeding begins and in the late summer and early fall during harvest.

As harvest begins, SaskPower is reminding farmers to look up and be aware of the location of power lines and poles near their property.

A vehicle crashing into a power pole caused a fire and an outage in the Yorkton area just last night, so the warning seems timely.

“You have more farmers and producers and hired hands, employees and so on, out in the fields either seeding or harvesting,” said SaskPower spokesperson, Scott McGregor. “So it stands to reason you would see an increase in line contacts.”

In their release earlier today, SaskPower pointed out that, as of Aug. 7, there had been 186 incidents involving farm machinery so far this year. Any one of those incidents could’ve turned deadly.

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“The most serious consequence would be, potentially, death should line contact occur,” said McGregor. “Should any farmer or producer or operator of large equipment come into contact with a power pole or a power line, the most important thing to do is to remain in your vehicle. The vehicle is the safest place to be.”

The exception to this rule is if contact with the power line or pole has started a fire. When that happens, SaskPower has some advice on how to exit the vehicle as safely as possible.

“The operator should open the door as wide as they can, cross their arms in front of their chest, and jump as far away from the vehicle, avoiding any downed lines or other damage to the structure, as far as they possibly can,” McGregor said. “Land with both feat on the ground at the exact same time, keep your arms tight to your chest, and hop with your feet together away from your vehicle at least ten meters away, then call 911.”

From there, McGregor said you shouldn’t go back to the vehicle under any circumstances because you don’t know what’s electrified from contact with the pole. The best safety policy, however, is to avoid that collision with the pole or wire altogether.

“First off, make sure that you are rested,” said McGregor. “We absolutely understand that harvesting puts a lot of long hours in over multiple days, so finding time to rest and recharge those batteries is hard to do, but it should be a priority in terms of making sure you are rested and alert.”

McGregor added you can plan your route ahead of time using the map on SaskPower’s website. He also said the number of collisions between farm equipment and power equipment was exactly the same to this point this year as it was in 2021.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP