A northern Indiana farmer made what could have been a life or death decision by staying in the cab of his backhoe with a live power line draped over the piece of heavy machinery he was operating.
His actions should serve as a reminder to everyone, including farmers, who are becoming more active in the fields with spring planting of corn and soybeans fast approaching.
LaPorte County Police Capt. Mike Kellems said some people, including police officers and firefighters, over the years have died rushing to help, not realizing a fallen utilty wire can electrify the surroundings, even the soil.
"Power is always going to go down. When you get off is when you risk injury,'' said Kellems.
Cliff Guse, 63, of Wanatah was operating a backhoe last Friday afternoon when he saw the power line and thought he could safely pass underneath it, police said.
The backhoe proved too tall to clear the line and pulled down the live wire in the 14,000 block of S. 600 West at the Christmas tree farm his family has owned since the 1970s.
He called 911 and stayed in his cab for about 30 minutes until crews with the utility company, Kankakee Valley REMC, came out and turned off the power to the line.
Guse said he was driving from one side of the road to the other when he saw the utility pole wiggle and heard what sounded like a fuse exploding.
He wasn't sure if power was still flowing through the line so he remained in the cab to play it safe.
"I wasn't going to jump out to find out,'' said Guse, who was out cleaning up brush to get ready for planting trees to replace the ones harvested during the holidays.
Kellems said the inside of vehicles, because of the grounding effect of the tires and being made with more plastic parts, do not become electrified from contact with live power lines.
"The power is going through the vehicle and into the ground and so it bypasses the person that's sitting on it, but when you jump off you lose the protection of the vehicle,'' said Kellems.
The outside of the vehicles, though, along with the soil can carry enough of the current to cause death, so it's important to remain seated and not panic until power company crews get out and make the line safe.
"As long as you're safe inside your vehicle stay in it until the power gets neutralized,'' said Kellems.
Gene Matzat, an educator with the Purdue University Extension office in LaPorte, said farmers to avoid encounters with power lines should make sure they're familiar with their surroundings before venturing out with their tractors and other machinery.
Knowing the terrain is even more critical nowadays because the size of the farm machinery over the years has increased in size.
"You have to know the equipment well and know the distances that you have to navigate through to be able to do what you're supposed to do safely,'' said Matzat.
It also wouldn't hurt for farmers to make sure there's enough clearance for any buried gas lines, especially if they plan on tilling deeper into the soil, Matzat said.
More of a common safety hazard to farmers, though, is operating combines and other machinery on the public roads, he said.
Not only can drivers of passenger vehicles become impatient or irate, but modern pieces of farm machinery, being larger than in the past, travel slower, leaving less of the road to share with other motorists creating a greater risk for accidents if all of the necessary precautions are not taken.
"When you're operating something that heavy on a narrow road, it's still much slower than what most other vehicle traffic is going on the roads," said Matzat.
Matzat said spring planting, depending on the weather, could begin later this week but, typically, is not in full swing until late April or early May.
Arnold Devereaux was a LaPorte firefighter when he was killed in May of 1980 at the site of a motor vehicle crash that brought down some power lines.
Kellems said Devereaux was tending to the crash victim, who touched the outside of his vehicle, which transferred the current to the fireman.
The crash victim survived.
Craig Blann, a deputy with the Newton County Sheriff's Department, was electrocuted when he came into contact with a live power line while investigating a motor vehicle crash in September of 2004.
"It's definitely a danger,'' said Kellems.