The Alberta government and five provincial utility companies have once again launched a summer campaign to reduce the number of power line related accidents and injuries.
The collaborative effort through the creation of the Joint Utility Safety Team (JUST) is promoting the importance of power line safety. The team is comprised of the provincial government, AltaLink, ATCO, ENMAX, EPCOR, and FortisAlberta.
JUST's campaign for this summer is providing information to the public on what to do if a motorist's vehicle hits a power pole, particularly relevant during summer months when Albertans spend more time on the roads for holidays.
However, power line safety is also important to industry, as most incidents -- typically hundreds each year -- occur when people are at work operating equipment, such as backhoes, gravel trucks, delivery trucks, high loads, as well as a wide variety of agricultural equipment.
While JUST designated June 18 as Power Line Safety Day throughout the province, committee members emphasize the issue is relevant at any time.
“Every day two or three Albertans make contact with a power line and risk serious injury or worse. That's why our industry has joined forces to help keep Albertans safe. Knowing what to do in emergency situations is an important part of our safety campaign,” said Barry Goy, executive chair for JUST.
JUST is using its “Where's the Line” marketing campaign to push its message of power line safety to the public, which is promoted through advertising and various educational power line safety initiatives, such as the one this summer. For industry specifically, the “Where's the Line” campaign focuses on the message of “7 metres safe” – the minimum safe distance between an operator's equipment and power lines.
The joint government and utility company public awareness initiative began in 2007 after it was discovered that between 2000 and 2005 there was a growing trend throughout the province with accidents and injuries involving power lines.
“It was in 2006 when the utilities and the Alberta government formed the JUST team and decided collaboratively to address power line safety and pool everyone's resources together to address the common issues of safety around power lines,” said Amber Kalyn, senior communications advisor for AltaLink and a member of the JUST committee.
Kalyn said there was a high volume of incidents recorded by each utility in the following sectors: transportation, construction and farming, and oil and gas. Each utility was promoting power line safety individually and the government saw an opportunity for everyone to pool their resources together and more effectively reach Albertans that way, said Kalyn.
Kalyn said measuring JUST's success with its marketing campaigns has been “challenging” to determine as each utility company reports incidents differently. However, the results from JUST's 2013 research show 62 per cent of its targeted audience reported having awareness of the “Where's the Line” campaign, and 59 per cent who had heard a “Where's the Line” radio ad thought about its message at or en route to the jobsite.
As well, the research reported that awareness of the “7 Metres Safe” message reached 48 per cent of the audience, which was up from nine per cent in 2008.
“All the utilities involved are pleased with the results and the education that we are pushing out to Albertans about power line safety, and the awareness the campaigns are creating,” said Kalyn.
For more information on JUST's “Where's the Line” campaign and power line safety visit http://www.wherestheline.ca
