James Robert Church

Click on links below Obituary Funeral It's been one year now

In Memory of my little brother James Robert Church Age 27 My brother lost his life from an electrical accident 11-14-99 Working for the City of South Sioux City Nebraska Electrical Dept He received his promotion to an apprentice in July of 1999-4 months prior to the accident. He was on call that weekend and he and one of his supervisors had been working on an underground power failure in a residential area and had been working all night. They were having difficulty locating the underground fault. Another supervisor showed up that morning to help. He did relieve them to take a break which ended short when interupted by dispatch. The Supervisor at the site had located the fault. My brother and his supervisor headed back to the site. They then took turns hand digging ground to the location of fault. They then proceeded to repair the line. and finished repairing the fault. They had determined that the elbows on fuse box, the first tranformer and second transformer needed to be treated and replaced with industry standard elbows. While the line was de-energized they replaced the elbow on the fuse box end. Then on the primary end of the cable feeding to first transformer. One supervisor stayed at the fuse box. The other supervisor and my brother were located at the 1st transformer. The supervisor with my brother was speaking with the supervisor at fuse box with a hand radio. The supervisor with my brother was directing instructions to my brother who was kneeled down next to the open transformer #1. He had him replace/treat the elbow coming from the fuse box. Which my brother had completed. He then instructed him to plug it into the transformer. Now they still had an elbow to replace on the 1st tranformer Which was the second primary feeding to tranformer #2. And replace elbow on the tranformer #2. Before doing this. The supervisor w/ my brother had called over to the supervisor at the fuse box letting him know that he was instructing my brother to go ahead and replace/treat the primary #2 elbow that feeds to second tranformer. The supervisor instructed the supervisor at the fuse box to go ahead and plug in the elbow at the fuse box and heat up the 1st transformer. This is the one that he and my brother are at. Which at the same time he has my brother changeing out the second elbow on it. When the supervisor at the fuse box plugged in and heated the transformer up is when my little brother was electrocuted. What happened is that the 1st transformer was paralleled to the 2nd transformer. And even though the elbow my brother was changing out was unplugged and grounded. There was a secondary line feeding to transfomer #2- in return caused feedback to the line my brother was being instructed to work on. 11 Safety regulations were found to being violated at the time this accident happened. What is most difficult is the city of South Sioux City lied on the investigation report. Since they are a municipality OSHA was not involved at all. The City of South Sioux claimed that my brother proceeded to do something that he was not instructed to do unknown to supervisors w/ him why he was doing this. They put the blame on my brother. We the family had been given the taped conversation that the law enforcement center taped of the 2-supervisors radio conversation at the time accident occured. My brother was being instructed by his supervisor to do what he was doing. His supervisor did not test the lines. The transformer should have not been energized until the work was complete. A before job briefing was not done to communicate knowledge between 3 workers. It appears that the supervisor at fuse box was aware of feedback. It appears the supervisor with my brother was not aware that there was feedback. Which would of been determined if safety regulations were followed. The only mistake my brother had made is that he trusted his supervisor. His supervisor clearly made a mistake. This was a high voltage transformer and according to OSHA regulations. My brother should not have even been down in the transformer doing this work. My brother was still in his on the job training period. And it appears to the research we have done that many Safety regulations were being disregarding on a day to day basis. And these are the conditions he was being trained under. OSHA does not enforce safety regulations in Nebraska municipalities only in private companies in Nebraska. The state departments in Nebraska also do not enforce safety regulations in there Municipalities. The City of South Sioux received no fines or any repremend. They in my opinion took my brothers life do to there negligence (NOT MY BROTHERS NEGLIGENCE.) in not requireing there employs to follow safety regulations daily. And allowed my brother to be trained under these conditions. They slandered and deframated my brother character by the lies in there investigation report. This has been extremely difficult for our family to put peace of mind and some closure to the loss of our brother, son and friend. WE MISS YOU JAMIE!!!!!!!!