Video: PG&E Truck Rodeo Focuses on Bucket Truck Safety

The fourth annual Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Truck Rodeo in Watsonville, Calif. in late June, highlighted bucket truck driver safety.

From vehicle inspections to challenges that mirror real-world scenarios, the drivers are put through a series of hands-on tests. PG&E Electric Troubleman Grant Estrada created the event, which uses 10-ton bucket trucks used for electric system repairs.

The Truck Rodeo begins with peer-to-peer vehicle inspections on pole-climbing gear, ladders and crucial insulated rubber gloves, and tidiness of on-vehicle storage areas.

Estrada says that it's important for utility drivers to consider how they're loading tools into the truck, adding that in seeing data while weighing trucks for compliance, he found a correlation between truck roll-over and a side-to-side weight imbalance. So, by creating awareness of this issue, he started the Truck Rodeo.

Read the full blog from PG&E here.