NIE Networks’ Look Up to Live campaign will run throughout October to remind everyone that darker conditions make overhead power lines more difficult to see.
According to the company, more than 40 people were affected by incidents involving overhead power lines in 2025. Some of those incidents caused life-changing injuries or even fatalities.
Farmers and contractors are particularly at risk at this time of year as we enter a period when the working day stretches beyond the hours of daylight said Damien Monaghan, the head of health and safety at NIE Networks.
“The majority of what we see could have been avoided if there was a bit of communication beforehand,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Ideally, work should be planned in the daylight, and it is important to guard against complacency given the continual shift towards using more powerful machines.
Modern silage equipment has become much higher, whether that is the spout of the harvester or the sides of silage trailers. It is also moving much more quickly towards poles in fields.
“Contractors are working around the clock,” said Monaghan. “Drivers are watching the row or the machine beside them, rather than out the front window.
“Ideally, work parallel to lines or rake out from under the line. But the biggest thing is to know it is there.”
Frightening incidents
He recounted a number of incidents this year. A contactor recently clipped a power line while harvesting maize. A video showed sparks flying as the power passed down through the machine and onto the ground. Nobody was hurt, but it could have been an horrendous incident, as the operator had their young child in the cab with them, said Monaghan. Separately, a power line was damaged earlier this year after a stay was pulled out of the ground after being caught by an umbilical slurry pipe.
If someone does damage a power line when in the field, the advice is to stay in the cab and contact emergency services and NIE Networks. If there is a visible danger of the machine beginning to burn, you need to jump well clear rather than step off the equipment. Treat a line on the ground as live, and don’t approach it.
In farm yards, Monaghan said a power line running between sheds or into a dwelling house is equally as dangerous as lines running through fields.
There have been incidents this year in which meal lorries caught lines when being tipped. The trailers were being operated from outside the cab, so operators were in contact with the ground when the lines were touched.
“The drivers either got shocked or burned. Both were incredibly lucky to live,” Monaghan said.
For anyone seeking advice, the NIE Networks contact centre is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 03457 643 643.
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