Electrical Bird Nests of Death Worldwide

I just recently learned what the actual definition of a clusterfuck was, and I was also writing this gigantic post of these wiring birdnests of death that I just cannot stop researching.  Do you know how many people are estimated to have died just in the USA by OSHA in 2016?  I’m guessing their stats are a year or so behind, but construction and the Trades is a place we in Entertainment can look to take a cue on protecting ourselves and those around us.  Considering that energy-related accidents JUST IN THE UNITED STATES are two of the top ten violations of OSHA code, and with all of the renewed focus on workplace safety, I thought this would be a great time to post some absolutely horrifying images of some rat nest public utilities examples.  Bad wiring?  This doesn’t even begin to touch on bad wiring.

Just to hit on the fact that electrical violations are two of the top ten OSHA’s Most Cited, check this out — if you wanna count the number one citation and the number 6, that’s SIX that occur in our industry — I’ve highlighted those in red that are on the Top Ten that occur in our industry, undoubtedly people will argue that we have more than just these six as violations in Entertainment:

1. Fall protection, construction (29 CFR 1926.501), “Duty to have Fall Protection”
2. Hazard communication standard, general industry (29 CFR 1910.1200), “Hazard Communication”
3. Scaffolding, general requirements, construction (29 CFR 1926.451), “General Requirements
4. Respiratory protection, general industry (29 CFR 1910.134), “Respiratory Protection”
5. Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout), general industry (29 CFR 1910.147), “The Control of Hazardous Energy”
6. Ladders, construction (29 CFR 1926.1053), “Ladders”
7. Powered industrial trucks, general industry (29 CFR 1910.178), “Powered Industrial Trucks”
8. Machinery and Machine Guarding, general requirements (29 CFR 1910.212), “General Requirements for All Machines”
9. Fall Protection–Training Requirements (29 CFR 1926.503), “Training Requirements”
10. Electrical, wiring methods, components and equipment, general industry (29 CFR 1910.305), “Wiring Methods, Components, and Equipment”

This is mind blowing!

I know we have all seen some crazy wiring in our time, and a lot of the things that we do create some crazy spaghetti of cabling and jumbleness that looks pretty bad, but take a look at these images and see if they give you the same hairs-on-the-arms-straight-up feeling they do for me.  I saw someone post a photo of a Pakistani public work utility pole in an industry related blog, and that began the search for imagery for me.  Check these out, this shit is absolutely incredible.

Click on any photo and it opens up into the attachment page in full size.

I’ve separated these into groups by location, each giving some creedence to some of the looks on these guys’ faces as they dig through these messes.  Let’s start with India…

India Cable Clusters of Catastrophe

Philippine Piles of Power Repose

Pakistani Power Problems

One thing that is a major issue in Pakistan — actually two things — people stealing from the grid, and companies using completely inferior components and outdated transformer gear to keep the infrastructure going.  Some examples:

Indonesian Idiocy and Inherent Death by Electrocution

Brazil’s Magical Mismanagement of Public Works Cabling and Favela Electrical Flow

Y’all Ready for CHINA?

Vicious Vietnamese Wiring and Laotian Electrocution

Wiring Outside a Mexican Venue

I found a few really bad shots of Mexican wiring, but these two right outside a not-to-be-named venue kinda took the cake for me.

Thailand Takes the Electrical Taco

By far the worst photos I found were some of the ones from Pakistan, but Thailand takes a close second, with India taking third.  I mean, these are purely terrifying.

I’m exhausted just from looking at these!  Granted there are places in the US that look just like this, but it seems that our government likes to levy fines against really terrible wire clusters and the people who give birth to them, so there’s that.  Here’s a contractor job found in Nashville:

 

Hat tips:
https://www.alternet.org/environment/23-countries-just-got-energy-efficiency-report-cards-and-theyre-almost-all-flunking

http://www.positive-magazine.com/brazil-interview-with-paulo-goldstein/

http://amandaabizaid.com/music/day-7_haduan-mabalacat-north-district-philippines/

https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/citywide-heating-and-cooling/knoxville-tennessee-37920/citywide-heating-and-cooling-unsafe-practices-with-work-that-could-have-been-life-threate-807706

http://thehlist.blogspot.com/2016/09/

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/around_thailand/30327748

http://anartteacherinchina.blogspot.com/2014/05/

https://bangkokrealitysmackdown.wordpress.com/2011/05/

http://www.dvb.no/news/shivering-tropics-southeast-asia-faces-cooling-crisis/79474

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/knot-a-problem-thai-capital-tackles-overhead-street-cables

http://www.newslens.pk/already-distressed-consumers-shocked-by-continuous-rise-in-electricity-bills/

http://wherearerickandlea.blogspot.com/2015/01/january-2015-phuket-first-taste-of.html

http://www.askart.se/askart/our-lives-and-travels-photos/zanzibar-8186729

https://robertsinchina.wordpress.com/http://www.rannsiracusa.com/blog/the-cords-that-bind