“Rosseti Centre Voronezhenergo” warns motorists of liability for damage to power grid facilities

Since the beginning of 2020, specialists of the branch “Rosseti Centre Voronezhenergo” and JSC “Voronezh Gorelektroset” have recorded 45 cases of damage to power line poles of various voltage classes by vehicles. The total damage caused to the enterprises amounted to 1.6 million rubles. The main cause of the accidents was the carelessness of the drivers and their violation of the rules of the road. In all cases, the power engineers filed applications with territorial law enforcement agencies.

“Rosseti Centre Voronezhenergo” notes that as a result of damage to power lines, not only damage is caused to the electric grid company, but also harm is caused to consumers of electricity - without light there are residential buildings, enterprises, socially significant facilities. So, on 7 June, in the village of Medvezhye of the Semiluksky district, a truck broke wires of a 10 kV power line. As a result, more than five hundred residents of the village were left without light, socially significant facilities - a boiler room, a water tower and a school were de-energized.

It should be remembered that for damage to power equipment, violators are held liable under Article 9.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - “damage to power grids”, with a fine of 1 to 1.5 thousand rubles from individuals, or from 20 to 30 thousand rubles if the damage was caused by fault of a legal entity. In addition, the violator is obliged to reimburse the costs of the actual restoration of damaged energy facilities.

A collision of a car with a pole, even in the absence of injured and damage to other vehicles, is qualified as a traffic accident. It is not uncommon for drivers who damage poles to hide from the scene of an accident. For this misconduct, they, in addition to redressing the damage caused, face administrative liability. According to Article 12.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, leaving by the driver of the scene of a traffic accident to which he was a party entails the deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of one year to one and a half years or administrative arrest for up to fifteen days.

In the event of a collision with a power line pole, it is important to remember that power lines are live, therefore, in order to avoid an accident, the following electrical safety rules must be strictly observed:

• If the vehicle body with the pneumatic drive or its mechanism comes into contact with wires of an overhead line (Conductor), do not leave the driver’s compartment of the vehicle if possible.
• Try to disconnect the vehicle connection from the overhead line and drive off to a safe distance.
• If it is impossible to disconnect and there is an urgent need to leave the driver’s compartment (fire or other threat), this must be done by categorically excluding the possibility of simultaneous contact of the vehicle body and the ground.

The rules for evacuation of live vehicles:

• When leaving the vehicle, it is necessary to stand simultaneously on both tightly closed legs. When evacuating, one must not allow a person to simultaneously touch the body of the vehicle and the earth.
• Depart to a safe distance - remember that the radius of the danger zone around the fallen wire, in which the person may be affected by “step voltage”, is at least 8 m.
• It is necessary to leave the danger zone with a “goose pace”: bring legs together, without lifting them from each other and from the ground, move with small, small sliding steps. Thus, when walking, both legs will be almost at the same point with one electric potential - the voltage between them will be insignificant.
• Try not to lose balance, do not increase the width of the stride, do not touch the ground with your hands, do not lean on foreign objects and other people.

Once at a safe distance, you must immediately report a broken wire via the single telephone number of the emergency services 112, as well as power engineers via the round-the-clock toll-free telephone line of Rosseti Centre at 8-800-50-50-115.