A forensic pathologist at the Fresno County Coroner’s Office has completed an autopsy on 51-year-old Luis Manuel Santos of Hanford.
The death has been ruled an accident. Santos suffered head and neck injuries associated with electrocution.
Around 4:15 pm Wednesday, Fresno County Sheriff's deputies responded to an industrial accident at a dairy ranch located on the 6200 block of S. Brawley Ave., just west of Easton.
At about 3:15 pm, Santos, a truck driver who worked for Penny-Newman Grain Inc. of Fresno, was unloading grain out of his steel tanker trailer. The grain contains molasses and is very sticky, so it is common for it to get stuck in the trailer and requires the driver to loosen it so that it will pour out. In this case, Santos climbed on top of the trailer and opened a lid to access the grain. He used a long metal pole, approximately 12 ft., to try and loosen the grain inside the trailer. The trailer was parked directly underneath several live electrical lines. When Santos raised up the metal pole in his hands, it came in contact with those lines and sent an electrical charge through him and caused him to fall to the ground where he struck his head.
Deputies found the metal pole to still be standing straight up in the trailer’s opening and touching the electrical lines. This caused the entire truck and trailer to be charged with electricity, which could potentially kill someone if they touched either one. Deputies called PG&E workers out to turn of the power and asked firefighters to respond as a precautionary measure. California Highway Patrol officers also closed down the nearby roadway to motorists. Once crews turned off the electricity, the area was ruled to be safe and officers reopened the road.
The Sheriff’s Office wants to remind people to always be aware of their surroundings. Use caution whenever you’re operating vehicles or standing near powers lines. To eliminate the risk of injury or death, you should always assume that electrical wires are live.
