Overhead power line safety
You do not have to touch a power line for it to kill you
Electricity arcs. It jumps the gap. A carbon fibre pole with water running through it is about the best conductor you could carry into a garden, and it does not need to make contact with anything for the current to find it.
We build and sell those poles. That is exactly why this page is here.
What happened to Jason Knight
On 6 April 2024, Jason Knight was cleaning windows in a domestic garden with a telescopic water fed pole. A flashover of 33,000 volts jumped roughly 2 metres from an overhead line to his pole. He never touched the cable.
He lost his left forearm and several toes, suffered severe burns and extensive damage to his legs, and has been through more than twenty operations.
He and his father now run Look Up Look Out, a non-commercial, not-for-profit public safety campaign, to make sure other cleaners hear about it before it happens to them rather than after.
Read the campaignHow far is far enough
HSE GS6 — Avoiding danger from overhead power lines — is the guidance that governs this work. Working within 10 metres of an overhead line is high risk and needs expert advice before it starts.
| Line | Absolute minimum |
|---|---|
| Domestic supply, 230V / 400V | 1 metre |
| Distribution lines, 11kV / 33kV | 3 metres |
| Transmission lines, 132kV | 6 metres |
These are minimums, not working distances. They are the point below which you are in immediate danger, not a target to creep up to. You cannot tell 11kV from 33kV by looking, and you cannot judge three metres accurately from the ground with a pole above your head. Give it the width of the whole garden.
Before every job
Look up. Look out. One simple habit before every job.
- 01
Look up before you unload
Not once you are set up and not once the pole is out. Cables are easy to miss against a bright sky, and easier still when you have done the same house forty times.
- 02
Walk the whole working area
Look for lines crossing the garden, feeding the house, running to an outbuilding, or hidden in trees. A service cable to a garage is still lethal.
- 03
Measure the gap honestly
Judge it against the length of the pole you are about to extend, not by eye from the van. A 40ft pole is twelve metres of conductor in your hands.
- 04
If there are lines near the job, do not do the job
Clean what you can reach safely and tell the customer why the rest is not being done. No window is worth this, and no customer is owed an explanation you would not give a coroner.
- 05
Call the network operator if you are unsure
They will advise, and in some cases arrange for a line to be shrouded or turned off. It is free and it is what they are there for.
Where we stand on insulated sections
Our water-fed poles and our gutter vac poles are built with two insulated sections tested to 80,000 volts AC for one minute at 0.05mA leakage, to GB/T 1408.1-2016. In September 2026 the Look Up Look Out campaign independently reviewed that evidence for our 22ft range and the D50 gutter vac. Those tests are real and we stand behind them.
Look Up Look Out — Evidence-Based Safety Recognition
Awarded 21 September 2026 against the campaign's 33kV+ Compliance Standard, following an independent review of our published test evidence. Our thanks to John Knight and the Look Up Look Out campaign for the work they put into it.
ACF2205 / CF2205 (Anti-Spin & Non-Anti-Spin) · LULO-33-2026-004
Test report 2026090278, issued 18 September 2026
D50, 4-section tested configuration · LULO-33-2026-005
Test report 2026090279, issued 18 September 2026
This recognition acknowledges product-specific evidence reviewed by the campaign. It is not product certification or regulatory approval, and it does not replace a Certificate of Conformity. It covers the two ranges named above, not every pole we sell.
High voltage insulation test data — 21 September 2026
The test results behind those two ranges, as the test sheet gives them. Note the first line: with only its carbon fibre sections extended, the 22ft pole failed at 2.6 kV. Every 80 kV pass was with the glass fibre sections fully extended.
| Test | Electrode spacing | Voltage | Current | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sections 1–3 (carbon fibre) fully extended | 3360mm | 2.6 kV | 40 mA | Fail |
| Sections 1–5 partially extended | 4000mm | 20 kV | 1 mA | Pass |
| Sections 1–3 partially extended, 4–5 (glass fibre) fully extended | 2720mm | 40 kV | 0.03 mA | Pass |
| Sections 1–5 fully extended | 6650mm | 80 kV | 0.05 mA | Pass |
| Test | Electrode spacing | Voltage | Current | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 carbon fibre sections | 1500mm | 2.6 kV | 40 mA | Pass |
| Only the 2 glass fibre bottom sections | 2100mm | 80 kV | 0.05 mA | Pass |
| 2 carbon fibre + 2 bottom sections, fully extended | 6000mm | 80 kV | 0.05 mA | Pass |
Safety notice, from the test sheet: The above test results were obtained under controlled laboratory conditions and are intended for reference only. In actual working environments, factors such as moisture, water spray, water flow, dirt, and surface contamination may reduce the insulation performance of the product. For safety reasons, users must fully extend the fiberglass insulation sections before operation and follow applicable safety requirements and operating procedures.
Download the test sheet (PDF)They are also, as the campaign puts it, a last line of defence. They do not make an unsafe distance safe, and they are not permission to work near overhead lines. Jason Knight was hit by 33,000 volts from 2 metres away. No insulation rating on any pole made by anyone would have changed what happened to him.
If you take one thing from a pole manufacturer telling you this: the rating on the box is not the thing keeping you alive. The distance is.
Reach Poles has no commercial relationship with Look Up Look Out. We publish this because we make the poles, and because our customers work under these lines every day.
Not sure which pole?
Tell us the height you need to reach and the work you do, and we will tell you which pole and which length to buy. We are window cleaners — we use these every day.