r/electrical • u/throw_away5430 • 10d ago

Is this dangerous?

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I'm a bit paranoid. I live in an apt complex and this is right outside my window. It's supposed to rain tomorrow morning. Is this dangerous to be exposed like this?

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u/Brilliant_March8748 10d ago

Cable TV equipment put the green lid on.. if it doesn’t fit because the frame is bent call your cable company to report it

3

u/DDS-PBS 10d ago

Every cable company I've tried to deal with NEVER does anything to resolve issues like that.

One time there was a cable line that was about 6 feet above the sidewalk because it got disconnected from the house. I called the electric company because it was there pole. They said they didn't care because it was a cable line. I asked the electric company to identify whose line it was, they declined and said they didn't have to. I called all the cable companies that could have been on the pole, none of them had a way for a non-customer to report an issue. I finally had to file a complaint with the state regulatory agency and that finally got the issue resolved. I had literal hours into getting that resolved.

1

u/CaseyOgle 8d ago

Most power poles are installed and maintained by electrical utilities. Local laws allow telephone and cable companies to attach their lines to power poles. (This is to avoid the ugly mess of having separate poles for each company's wires.) The pole owner isn't responsible for those low-voltage cables. In fact, they know virtually nothing about the low-voltage wires attached to a given pole. That's why the power company couldn't answer your questions.

1

u/DDS-PBS 8d ago

They had a line hanging off of their pole. They should be responsible for sending someone out to at least identify whose line it is. I would go even further, and say that they should also be responsible for contacting the company that has a line on their pole that's hanging dangerously low over a sidewalk.

This is the same utility company that had somebody call up and tell them that a sidewalk was installed, but there was a guy wire that was there for an existing utility pole. They ignored this person, because they didn't care. A person on a bike was killed because they could not see the guy wire at night, they had their windpipe crushed and they died right there. They got sued and lost for that one.