Looking at the video it would be easy for the workers to not notice the position of the blades because of the disconnect arc shield. Many industrial plants and government facilities use building engineers to do medium and low voltage switching for routine maintenance procedures, and they don't deal with electrical issues on a routine basis. Their only inclination that something was wrong would have been in the feel of the disconnect handle during it's opening operation. An electric may have not noticed this either. They were lucky that the whole plant was down and the energized feeder was not being worked on.

First, I thank God that no one was hurt. Second, I pray that this incident leads to refresher training.

NFPA 70E is only the law when adopted into law by a government jurisdiction. Otherwise it is a standard for implimenting OSHA. OSHA is the law.

I have to commend the company on their safety program and everything that has been accomplished. Having spent many years in the industrial environment, I have to disagree with this report and some actions that were not taken. On the First Note; my question is "Why wasn't the disconnect checked when the power was off for the blades to checked?" It is a standard with most electricians to ALWAYS check the load side when the disconnect handle is OPENED. With the type of disconnect that was shown and most that I have seen over the years, Most of the blades are visible. On the Second Note; The handle was BROKEN when the power was energized and the load side was energized pretty much instantaneously. If the handle was put into the closed position, No Damage would have occurred. They would have noticed there was "No Resistance" in the operation and that would have indicated a problem. The problem would have occurred Down Stream if someone was working on the load side when the power was energized. My conclusion to this video and report shows me that the maintenance personnel, were improperly trained to begin with and SHOULD NOT have been working on this equipment unless they are "Trained & Qualified Electricians" In my honest opinion, this was abn opportunity for the "Media" to capitalize & sensationalize a topic they know nothing about. Maybe the personnel will get better training after that incident.

While over my 30 years of startup and commissioning along with re-energizing and backfeeds, your suppose to visually perform an inspection and test all items for any type of power before and after the system is worked on. Then prior to energizing, you are suppose to verify again visually that all items are open prior to loading the gear. Basic 101 stuff.

Having worked inside high voltage cabinets all my career it is sobering to realize how such a simple thing as a broken disconnect could potentially kill you. Bravo to Pittsburgh Corning for making sure that you workers leave the job in the same condition they got there!