A Lineman’s Call: The Story of Jeremy White 

I can still remember the day my mom came and picked My brother and I up from school.I was about 12yrs old. She wouldn't tell us what happened, all we knew was it had something to do with Dad. We walked into the hospital and I seen My Grandpa, along with 4 other guys from my dads Crew. Walked into his room and I couldn't even recognize my father. Flash Burn, 2nd and 3rd degree on his face, Arms, Hands and many other spots. Im so lucky that I still have my dad and feel for this young family. That was the day I really started to appreciate what my father did everyday for us kids. He is a Journeymen lineman with 30Yrs under his belt. He was gone probably 50% of my childhood. Storm Work would have him gone months at a time. I think he spent 4 months down south after Katrina Hit. Thank you to all of you that work Overhead.

I'm 41 and a lineman been in the field 23 years. I've made it home everyday. Test and ground, test and ground. No shortcuts. Open visuals, don't assume anything is dead.

"sometimes i want to be angry with him for that" Such a raw honest moment. God bless the widow and children. RIP Jeremy.

This is EXACTLY why you're taught on DAY 1 of trade school, no matter what trade you're in, if you see a wire, doesn't matter if it's 24V or 24,000V, you treat it as if it's live.

Last month my son a lineman for 10 years was electrocuted in the head. He was up in the bucket working on a dangerous pole. He’s always so safe and it just took one slight accident and his head came into contact with 7200 volts. He’s alive. He had a hole blown out the top of his head, the flash went down his left torso and arm and out his fingers. He went unconscious for a bit then his ground man got him down and shook him and shook him. He opened his eyes! This happened Sept. 8th and he’s had two surgeries so far. His head wound was just worked on, his fingers had to be grafted. We were told by drs he really should not be alive. I almost lost my baby boy. But I didn’t and I’m so grateful. So sorry for this family.

I'm retired oil field and what he said rings 100% true, " every safety rule is written in blood". My prayers are with you and your family Mrs. White.

They always say that the Code of Safe Practices are written in blood and now you know why. God bless.

Thank you to Liz and Southern Pine for sharing Jeremy’s story. As an electrician, I KNOW it’s the lines-people who are among our everyday heroes. I hold my respect for them right along side of our police, firefighters, military and medics. May Jeremy Rest In Peace.

NEVER assume a line is dead. In fact the opposite, always assume it's hot and act accordingly. Stay safe out there brothers...

I have been a lineman 32 yrs. and it never fails to amaze me how this can still happen. Sad but this was the end result of a safety culture that was already embedded within that group and allowed poor habits to set in. Guaranteed this was not the first time he did this. RIP Jeremy and Godspeed.

Whenever given the chance, when I see linemen working, I pull over safely and thank each man an woman risking their lives to give us power. They can also be considered first responders and I appreciate them. Rest In peace Jeremy and all those who have lost their lives. You are heroes to me.

I wish every company across America and the world had to show this video to each employee on their first day orientation. It would save so many lives!

i got into backfeed on Dec 24 2013 because a customer hooked a generator up wrong to their house. 7620 was primary voltage. , the LORD. saved me that day. ,i climbed down the pole with the help of 3 tree trimmers. they were heros that day to me. ,i recieved burns on my hands , THANK YOU LORD

On my birthday Nov 24, 2014 I was hit with 13.8 Kv I lost my left arm and lost the top of my left shoulder, and burned my right hand entrance wounds and burns damaged my right hand. My face neck ears and lungs where also burnt from the arc flash 46 surgeries and 3 months in ICU felt like an Eternity in hell. I’m 5 years past my electrocution. My heart is broken for those who have to go through this. I found my therapy is helping other linemen that have had a similar accident Whether it’s they need some talk to Or help guiding them to get prosthetics That would function better. The Reason I came out so good I had God ,And my dad that lost the same arm 15years before me he inspired me not to give up.

Rest In Peace Brother! Your memory will live on forever in the brotherhood!

I respect all the lineman that takes the risk of working on power lines. Rest in peace.

In my whole 39 years working on a power linecrew, we had two electrocution deaths. In both cases, the linemen had made little, rudimentary, fundamental mistakes that killed them. Sometimes it's the little stuff that kills you. So sorry about Jeremy.

As I sit here watching this beautiful tribute to Jeremy White, his wife, family and brothers in the field I am reminded of how we take for granted the dangerous and hard work that these wonderful men and women perform every day so our families can have power. We need to stop every now and again and say a prayer every day for these every day Heroes. Without their hard work we would all be in the dark...literally! When my brother was doing in-home dialysis we had a bad storm and it was in the suction phase of peritoneal dialysis, you see we were only 3 weeks a way from me donating my kidney so my brother could receive one. Our neighbor works for Georgia Power and he was so kind he made sure he called me to let me know that he was going to help us get up and running asap. We also have a lot of elderly folks in our neighborhood too so he told me to let everyone know they were going to take care of us. When they were describing how all of the workers feel like family it may me think of our neighbor that works for Georgia Power and how he is more like a big brother to me than a neighbor because he is always thinking of not only our family but all of the elderly people that live around us too. He understand that people would worry and fret even though the power outage may only be a few minutes to a few hours. Every one in our neighborhood is just so grateful to our hard working friend and now, after watching this, I understand how dangerous his job is and will be praying for him and his family each and every day. Thank you Southern Pine Employees for sharing your story with us and God Bless You All.

Jeremy was my friend he's remembered in my friendship book I always called him Mr Jeremy thanks for keeping the lights on rest in paradise Mr Jeremy

Be your brother's keeper.... Insulate and isolate... Line life

Jeremy went to keep the lights on up in heaven, that shines down on all of us. Lineman here, my condolences.

God bless the fellow workers and the family. Been a lineman for 30 yeas. Never want that to happen to me or anyone else. God has blessed me with this. Will always keep you and all other lineman and families in my prayers. Don't take shortcuts.

My dad was an underground lineman for Union Electric in St. Louis for 27 years, one of the most ridiculously safe electric companies I've ever come across. I attended funerals for a few of his co-workers when I was young. I remember every story of what happened. A few were pure accidents, a guy fell forward into a transformer and he hit a 440 lug with his temple. For the most part though, I remember my dad saying the guy "assumed" something.

I watch this video every week as it never gets old if you ever worked in this trade. I thank Southern Pine and Jeremy's wife for doing this video in his rememberance!

7 years ago today. RIP Jeremy we’re still thinking of you and your family.

My brother is a journeyman lineman. My heart goes out to everyone that have lost loved ones.

To all the Linemen that keep power in our homes. Thank you and please stay safe!

Lineman are such a small concentrated group of highly skilled workers. It feels like Lineman you've never met are still your brothers. R.I.P, brother.

Thank you for sharing this important story. It is important that all citizens step back and realize that having power in your home is not just flipping a switch. There are real people in the background with real lives and families. They are in danger every day and work long hard hours in all conditions. You see them out there in the rain and snow and heat and they just do their jobs. It has to be a calling because not everyone can do such dangerous work. They are so important to our everyday life and they have amazing skills and attitudes about keeping the power on. I am thankful to work with these amazing people who give so much. I have much respect for them and their sacrifices after having worked at an electric cooperative for 35 years. Pray for their safety. RIP Jeremy White and bless his family.

I work with power companies and alot of other utility companies and I have much respect for men and women who put there lifes on line every single day so much respect to all you and this was a very sad story my condolences to his family and everyone he worked with so sorry.

This has to be the most dangerous job in the world.I know people say fisherman but this profession,every minute you could die.These are true hero’s and it sticks they don’t get enough credit for what they do

RIP Jeremy, you all that do this work are a special breed everyone be safe for 2020 and beyond

Wow yikes..this is troubling.so, You get desensitized by dealing w something every day. If you let it... Honestly,dealing w something dangerous ...people or electrical wires..it shows how we can let our gard down.what a tragic loss ,very sad story. My son is testing to be an apprentice lineman..& I came across this story..but the main lesson here can apply anywhere in life. Thank you for your story.

7260 reasons why. I am so terribly sorry for your loss.. I broke down when that man heard him moaning up there and it's a helpless situation short of getting dispatch to cut it off at the substation. May Jeremy Whites soul rest in peace watching over his family and friends.

I fell down the linemen rabbit hole and y'all got my crying at 3:30AM. Especially the comments. @DR DEPLORABLE that story really hit home. My family isn't in the Linemen Business but our neighbor is. I live in Louisiana and we lose power quite often and our neighbor has been working for ENTERGY for atleast 20 years. So during Katrina he was out fixing the power so the rest of our city could have their lights on. Thankful for y'all and I think I finally found what I want to do for a living.

Yes sir I've been blessed I haven't seen any of my friends get hurt or anything else but it's a good life and it provides for my family

Such a sad and tragic event. Sorry for the loss. Beautiful production quality.

Dad just told me to watch this video, he a lineman. What i learned is to never skip a step, job of precision/discipline you name it. If my dad ever leaves, I’ll know how because it will fall along those lines. Anyways accidents are not bound to happen u less you don’t.

This video is a fine teaching aid. I encourage anyone motivated to study then teach safety to others. It will also make YOU a safer person. This applies to more than the jobsite. I became a Motorcycle Safety Instructor because my bro who wasn't trained (not an option in those days) crashed and became paraplegic due to incorrectly turning a corner at speed. Safety is for home too as many skilled folks get injured off the job taking shortcuts they would not take on the worksite. Go slow and you'll get done quicker. Slow is smooth, smooth is safe and smooth is fast. Look out for others and your mind will be right.

RIP

My friend on July 4 2012 went to try to save his little brother that got electrocuted from a power line that hit him because of fireworks that hit the line causing it to break.. ended up going through a coma and realized his little brother didn’t make it..I was always told that you must find ground to be safe. But in that case I would have did what my friend did to try to save my little brother if I had one.

so sorry for the lose of our lineman brother , l'am a 40 yr.of service as a linesman, and this is a real in your life fact of linesman life,

This is so heartbreaking, God Bless him and his family and all the men and women on the lines ~

I don't think linemen get enough credit for the dangers of their occupation. Their service and sacrifice is very much appreciated by many. May God bless them and keep them safe. Thank You.

My girlfriend is a cable lineperson and I absolutely went off on her the other day for grabbing onto random equipment on a random pole in the rain without checking for potential.

Lord these people are hero’s. Absolute hero’s. Much respect

I'm sorry,but as an electrician myself you never assume anything about electricity....I hate that this man died,but he made a mistake that he never ever should have made.....especially working with voltages as high as these linemen work with....God be with his family.....

Mucha fortaleza a la familia . No es fácil perder a alguien que uno ama . Saludos de parte de un lineman que sabe lo duro que es. 🇵🇷

Complacency. A terrible accident. RIP Jeremy. 🙏 ♥

Complacency kills.

That’s one the most truest statements when it comes to electricity “The more you over look, the easier it is”.

I've been a sparks (electrician) for almost 40 years, during that time I've had a few minor accidents and seen a few too. Most, like this one are caused by complacency, they say familiarity breeds contempt, and it's true. A freind of mine got badly burned when he slipped and fell into a distribution panel, I got burned rushing a job one morning, something I'd done hundreds of times before, but this time it went wrong! I was lucky, only minor burns to my hand, arm and face, like I said I was lucky, a lot are not. Nowadays I push safety all the time, we have to have the equipment to prove dead, so we may as well use it, I tell all the young lads to test and test again, NEVER assume something's dead until YOU have tested it, Lines can be made live or dead over and over, sadly we are only made live once and dead once, unlike a breaker WE don't have a reset button. Stay safe everyone.

I am so sorry for your loss ma’am, also you gentlemen…. I can only express my true respect and love for you all, I am from the uk Manchester, and work in some scary places, but coming across this tragedy makes me stop and think…. Such a painful loss for a life changing change in practice xxxx❤

My heart just breaks for them and others that have lost someone. 😢🙏🏻 I didn't know that's what your husband did. Prayers each and every day for him and his crew's safety🙏🏻

these guys are literally angels keeping the world running

Rest in peace and god be with all of you

God help you Liz! I couldn't cry more while seeing this story about how your beloved lost his life. My wish for you is that you are surrounded with loving caring people. Maybe you have moved on. Don't forget him or let anybody steal him from your heart.

I was only eight or ten years old when I was introduced to electricity I'm glad I'm here today.

Sad & tragic I pray his family are able too cope

I have 2 uncles and 3 cousins that work for DUKE ENERGY here in South Carolina. I also know 7-8 of their co-workers personally. I KNOW what these guys go through and HAVE to endure. As a Firefighter, I've seen myself on what can and usually goes wrong with Power Crews. I cringe everytime I here a call go out for a Power Loss or a car that has taken a pole and transformers out. Due to the fact I know so many of the guys who may be on their way to fix the problem. God Rest Jeremy White's soul.

It is a painful vid to watch...RIP Jeremy White.

Its true its second nature being around it every single day. Being a tree trimmer doing line clearence has alot of the same hazards and i feel for the linemen we help. Always have more than 1 guy working at 1 time. Better to have multiple pairs of eyes to make sure nothing is overlooked

Loss is rough

RIP Brother! We'll be take it from here.

My brothers Keeper. ⚡️❤️⚡️

I just can't believe he broke such a cardinal rule,even just picking up the dead end???what was he thinking?now DO NOT get me wrong,I work on 500kV transmission lines from a helicopter,so I am well versed with danger but I just don't know what possessed him to do what he did with no proximity detection testing or anything,I'm at a loss he died FOR NOTHING 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

God bless Jeremy white and god bless linemen.

Hard to watch. Hard to see a wife grieve and friends/brothers/coworkers tear up. Hits home. Our main safety guy always tells us, 1 to 100... what number are you on. Glad they are doing JSA’s and tailboard meetings on every setup now. This trade isn’t for hot dogs anymore.

God Bless our first responders, best in the world

This should be watched at every new hire orientation

STAY SAFE KEEPVLOGGING GODBLESS

Rest easy my childhood friend Jeremy white you've been an awesome power line worker I will miss you and this video is why all linemen must wear rubber gloves and sleeves to prevent electrocution

Damn it blew his hand off and grafted the metal into his legs 😮. New found respect for the workers when they are trying to fix our power.

Statistics show the veteran guys are more likely to get injured than the lower totem pole guys no pun intended. Complacency is the biggest contributor

Rip

Jesus Christ! I know Squat about Electricity other than to plug in a T.V. The first thing I thought of was Is that fallen wire Hot! I guess it's just one of those things where you've been doing it so long......I don't know, but Kudos to Him and his Very Strong Wife! 👏👍👏 I would love to be a Helicopter Lineman! THAT Looks like it would be a BLAST! Commercial Diving as an Underwater Welder was a Freakin BLAST Too!!! R.I.P. MR. Jeremy! 😔😔😔

was about to become a powerline technician... welp not anymore.

There is a tried and tested way of doing things in a situation such as this. Sure first of all find out what the problem is, Next make a plan on how your going to safe the site and do the work, next make sure the line is dead and you have a visual open or guarantee of isolation . Next test the line for potential then install trip grounds. At the work site prep only the ground work and once receiving clearance proceed with the task at hand and even then there are still steps to follow. The only way this happened was a failure to follow these steps resulting in an accident that did not need to happen and should never have occurred in the first place. end result the death of this man for no reason other than simply careless work ethics

Skipping steps gets u 6 feet under

My brother died on duty 2yrs ago

I will say, doing linework , sometimes it takes someone getting killed for eyes to open. You hear about it , you hear stories, but until your crew is told " hey,, so and so just got killed". Then eyes open. People think about what they're doing. Sorry, been around plenty of people getting killed losing their lives. Sorry if this offended anyone.

sorry.......tears....something good came out of it in the end

I'm wanting to be a lineman, and I don't like making comments on a dead man's behalf, but wouldn't one of the very first rules of this line of work be assume every line is hot until proven otherwise?

This is complacency, and it still does happen….definitely he did this before and got away with it. I feel sorry for his widow and children. It didn’t have to go this way. I did the job and taught the job. It always amazed me with all the different layers of safety protection that is there people still chose to jump through them. I’ve seen and worked with some cowboys. I always reminded my trainees….electricity service is a very critical part of our way of life …..but it’s not life threatening until you make it that way!

The lose of 1 is 2 much

Why didn't the load dispatchers cut service to that line?

Getting to comfortable with what you are doing and taking short cuts is a bad habit to get in.

Electric power is not dangerous at all if an individual is competent, now if someone is incompetent that could be deathly mistake... I worked in so many different dangerous situation and all ways come home... You can have all the safety policy and rules in the world but if someone is not competent and trained in right ways its useless.... Anytime you have human being working in dangerous situation things could go wrong i don't care how much you talk safety policy and rules and regulations... Its very important to have well trained professional supervisors and crew formens on the job making sure everyone is talking, following safety rules regulations, and everyone is competent... I once worked for chemical company and individual become supervisor not by knowledge but by friendship with top management and hired others with no knowledge but friendship, they can read from book but have no clue about the job or chemicals that being used and the dangers, that why accident happens....

I was always tought to assume the line is HOT.... This is sad and his life is lost due to your poor safety

Sad thing is he didn't follow proper SOP there for forfeits a payout to his family.

I had a freind whose father hung a lot of those high power line erectorsets that are 250,000 500,000 when hot....they are the power lines in the middle of. Ow where grid....one day my friends father had a tiny hole in his lineman's glove a four foot arc went through mr smokes glove in through his chest out through his boot..his internal organs were cooked burnt....Mr smoke lived about 6 years after that fed through his feeding tube that ranthroughhis gut...morphine sulfate is what kept him comfortable....

I don't get it. Experienced lineman touches a hot wire he thinks is dead? Was he suicidal? Isn't there an easy way for them to check the high voltage line on the ground or in the air if it's hot? I am not an electrician but when I work on our 110-240V house wiring I throw the breakers, pull the fuses then check the wires with meters i am going to work with. Every time.

Just like a farmer...get prideful...take shortcuts...and the results are the same

They teach this as Electrical Theory 400 yeas for a reason.. I buried a few electricians that forgot that rule...And I almost been killed twice myself...All because I didn't look around to see what was around me...Not just what I was working on...

Being a Lineman we have a bunch of stupid safety rules like wheel chocks and shit like that. Always test , and wear you gloves. Anything else is being selfish and not caring about your family.

Basic, basic, basic safety. Why the hell would an electrical professional assume the downed line is hot?! Yet guys can't get in apprenticeship unless they know someone. This is a good old boys job. They only select on friends and connections. See any similarities btw them all?

Most dangerous civilian job in the world, and the most thankless.

My god. I dont want to disparage the deceased, but what was he thinking????? I work wirh 3 phase 480 and never work on it until im positive its de energized. Dont even let someone else tell you it is. Confirm it yourself.

Couldn't they have at least picked a better thumbnail tho.

No matter what job it is the hole team has to be there never work solo God bless the family...and everyone talk shit about money but I don't see them climbing up a pole...if the world would stop talking shit it would be a better place...so many girls so few ladies....