48-437. High voltage lines; prohibited acts; penalty.

(1) No person, firm, or corporation, or agent of such person, firm, or corporation, shall require or permit any employee, except an authorized and qualified person, to perform and no person, except an authorized and qualified person, shall perform any function within the distances from overhead high voltage conductors prohibited by sections 48-436 to 48-442; or enter upon any land, building, or other premises, and there to engage in any excavation, demolition, construction, repair, or other operations, or to erect, install, operate, or store in or upon such premises any tools, machinery, equipment, materials, or structures, including house-moving, well-drilling, pile-driving, or hoisting equipment, within the distances from overhead high voltage conductors prohibited by sections 48-436 to 48-442, unless and until danger from accidental contact with such high voltage conductors has been effectively guarded against in the manner prescribed in sections 48-436 to 48-442.

(2)(a) No person except an authorized and qualified person shall manipulate overhead high voltage conductors or other components, including the poles and other structures, of an electric utility. Under no circumstances shall an authorized and qualified person work on the electrical system of an electric utility that he or she is not employed by unless written authorization has been obtained from such electric utility. This subsection shall not be construed to apply to activities performed by an authorized and qualified person employed by an electric utility on the electrical system of another electric utility when the nonowning or nonoperating electric utility has a written agreement with the owning and operating electric utility (i) providing for the joint use of or interconnection of the electrical systems of both the electric utilities or (ii) approving authorized and qualified persons employed by the nonowning or nonoperating electric utility to work on the electrical system of the owning or operating electric utility on an ongoing basis.

(b) Any person, firm, or corporation, or any employee thereof, violating any provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class II misdemeanor.

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