Tree Workers Injured In High-Voltage Accident

by Marcia Chambers January 8, 2010 9:41 AM
UPDATED: Three men were jolted with powerful electrical volts when they lost control of an aluminum ladder they were using to restore a roof on a commercial building in downtown Branford. The ladder fell backwards onto a high power electrical line about 15 feet away, according to Fire Chief Jack Ahern.
“That line had 13,200 volts on it,” Ahern said. It went through the bodies of two of the men who immediately suffered heart attacks and stopped breathing. A third man suffered serious hand burns. Branford paramedics arrived at the building at 246 Meadow St. off Church Street, shortly after 3:30 p.m.
A co-worker ran to help his buddies. He described them as “smoking” when they fell to the ground from the ladder. The ladder became a conduit to the ground and directly to the power line. The location is not far from a sub-station. “The guys that were holding the ladder got the brunt of it,” Ahern said in an interview.
The co-worker and others gave the men CPR until the Branford paramedics arrived. Three paramedic teams, working in the freezing air, managed to bring the men back to life. “They got a pulse,” the chief said.
The victims were identified as 57-year old Billy Twyford, the owner of All Aspects of Carpentry, believed to be the North Branford company hired to replace the roof and brothers, Rory and Travis Moody of Branford, two of the roof workers. Travis Moody, a musician, is well known in the New Haven area as one of the lead guitarists in the Moody-Blossom band.
Twyford and Travis Moody suffered heart attacks and other injuries. Twyford and Travis Moody, 35, were first taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital last night and then transferred to Bridgeport Hospital’s burn unit. Their conditions were upgraded to fair today, one notch below good, a spokesman for the hospital said. Twyford is in the orthopedic unit, Moody in the burn unit.
Rory Moody, 27, suffered extensive burns to his hands and is in critical condition in the trauma intensive care unit at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, according to hospital spokesman David Billig.
According to Police Lt. Geoffrey Morgan, who was also at the scene, the men were putting on a new roof, using a mechanical ladder with a machine attached to it. The machine lifts shingles up to a roof so the men don’t have to carry them up by hand. It is not clear how the men were positioned when the ladder swung backwards and hit the high power line. Then it fell.

This is the ladder that actually came in contact with the high voltage line. Ahern told the Eagle that the ladder was heavy and the three men were moving it from where it was propped next to their “climbing” ladder. As they were backing the ladder away from the building they somehow lost control of it. The power lines are very close. (See Top Photo).
Chief Ahern said the accident today could have been prevented.
“This is a classical example of what can go wrong,” he said, when one doesn’t take adequate precautions.
“They should have called the power company. The power company comes out and puts shielding on the wires just in case something like this happens.” Why this action wasn’t taken is not yet known.
The chief said his department contacted the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) because this was a workplace accident. “OSHA will conduct a full-blown investigation,” he said. The town is also expected to investigate whether the company had a valid permit to fix the roof on the commercial buildings.
Chief Ahern said these men were not amateurs. They had been doing this type of work for a long time. “It becomes second nature to move the ladder around. Sometimes you don’t think about the wires overhead.”