Can employees touch or remove unidentified dangling wires, trees, or foreign objects in contact with overhead wires or third rail?

Can employees touch or remove unidentified dangling wires, trees, or foreign objects in contact with overhead wires or third rail?

• A. NO
• B. Yes
• C. Only with approval
• D. Only if de-energized

Answer: (A)

Touching or removing unidentified dangling wires, trees, or foreign objects that are in contact with overhead lines or third rails is extremely dangerous because those conductors can be energized, damaged, or backfed even if you can’t see the exact condition. The safe approach is to treat them as live and avoid any contact. Only trained, authorized personnel who follow proper safety procedures and permission from the control center should handle the situation, and even then they would ensure the area is secured and the circuit is isolated before any work is performed. In practice, you should stop, keep a safe distance, report the hazard, and let qualified teams manage it.

Touching or removing unidentified dangling wires, trees, or foreign objects that are in contact with overhead lines or third rails is extremely dangerous because those conductors can be energized, damaged, or backfed even if you can’t see the exact condition. The safe approach is to treat them as live and avoid any contact. Only trained, authorized personnel who follow proper safety procedures and permission from the control center should handle the situation, and even then they would ensure the area is secured and the circuit is isolated before any work is performed. In practice, you should stop, keep a safe distance, report the hazard, and let qualified teams manage it.