Electrical (Electrocution) Consultants: 7

Capt. David G. Bacon, is a Maritime Consultant with over 30 years of experience providing exceptional customer service to clients from around globe. He has a United States Coast Guard Captains License (Operator of Uninspected Passenger Vessel - unlimited tonnage). Capt. Bacon is the owner, operator, and captain of Wavewalker Charters. His vessel charters include fishing, cruising, eco-tours, whale watching, diving, kayaking, photography, oil seeps, and oil spills. He has decades of vessel operations experience with zero accidents and zero injuries. As the Founder and Executive Director of Softin, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing at-sea educational adventures for special-needs children and adults, Capt. Bacon has extensive knowledge of passenger safety orientation and creating/maintaining a safe environment for passengers, including special-needs passengers in for-profit and nonprofit (501c3) ventures. As the owner of two retail stores: Hook, Line, & Sinker Fishing Center and Guns of Santa Barbara, Capt. Bacon understands the value and importance of customer service.

Background - Capt. Bacon worked in corporate management with AT&T for nearly 20 years, serving as Manager of Technical Operations and Customer Support. He also served as President and CEO of Sea Cubed, Inc., developing, publishing, selling, and distributing quality nautical products and displays.

Freelance Writer - Capt. Bacon has published over 2,000 articles for various periodicals (both print and on-line) and continues as an active writer. His areas of editorial responsibilities (past and present) encompass technical, educational, advocacy, and entertainment. He has written for such publications as Pacific Coast Sportfishing, Western Outdoor News, www.noozhawk.com On-line News, and Fishing and Hunting News among many others.

Public speaking - Capt. Bacon has participated in approximately 85 engagements. He is a teacher at Santa Barbara Community college. He has over 15 years of experience hosting seminars, informational/motivational lectures, and presentations for civic organizations, trade shows, and clubs. He has been a speaker at the Parks and Recreation Department of Santa Barbara, and made radio guest appearances on Fish Talk Radio.

View Capt. Bacon's Expert Witness Profile.

Burtness Engineering Services, is a multi-disciplined consulting engineering firm serving municipal, institutional, industrial, and commercial end user clients, civil engineering firms, and landscape architectural firms with MEP services for the construction industry. They specialize in Street and Area Lighting Design, Electrical Engineering, and Forensic Engineering services.

Consulting Services Include:

• Illumination Engineering for Roadway, Street, and Area Lighting
• Electrical Engineering (Through 15kv)
• Monitoring and Control Systems for Street and Area Lighting
• Full Range of MEP Services
• Industrial Instrumentation and Control Systems
• Stakeholder Based Collaborative Design Philosophy
• Focusing on the Marriage of the Art of Aesthetic Design and the Science of Technical Engineering
• Serving as a Prime or a Sub Consultant
• Forensic Consulting and Expert Witness Services

Principal, Thomas H. Burtness, PE, is an Electrical Engineer specializing in both Electrical and Building Construction - equipment selection, specification, and installation (actually “working with the tools”), as well as cost control techniques.

Background - Mr. Burtness has 40+ years of experience in the design, specification, construction contract administration, installation, startup, and troubleshooting of electrical power, on-site generation, distribution, control, and instrumentation systems and equipment for residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal occupancies. His experience also includes water, wastewater, and stormwater treatment plants, and military facilities.

Additional expertise includes Illumination Engineering for street, roadway, and area lighting including photometric footcandle requirements, calculations, field verification, equipment specifications, installation, and analysis of failure, glare, overlighting and underlighting.

Thomas Burtness has written numerous in-depth reports, including municipal master planning documents, as well as operation, maintenance, and testing manuals. He also has extensive experience in public speaking and teaching.

View Thomas Burtness' Expert Witness Profile.

Areas of Expertise: Chet  Sandberg, P.E. received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. He is a professional engineer in the state of California and an IEEE Fellow.

Background Experience - Litigation Support - Mr. Sandberg is an Expert Lithium Ion Battery  and Heat Transfer Expert with successful litigation in Lithium Ion Battery Failure.  He has court room experience, including testifying before the ITC in Washington DC. Mr. Sandberg is available to attorneys for both plaintiff and defendant. Mr. Sandberg joined the Chemelex Division of Raychem Corporation where he managed technology projects for 30 years. He held various positions at Raychem culminating as Chief Engineer.

For the next 6 years, Mr. Sandberg managed the development of a downhole, self-regulating electrical heater technology for Shell Oil. In 2009, he founded C L Sandberg & Associates, a consultancy specializing in Energy Projects, including managing customer engineering for Altairnano, a lithium ion battery manufacturer.

Mr. Sandberg has been associated with Electrical Energy Storage at EPRI, ESA, Sandia, and PNNL, as well as providing due diligence expertise for venture capital and private equity companies on their technical prospective investments. He has been granted 30 United States Patents and has authored over 70 technical papers on energy usage, electric heat tracing, ground fault technology, fiber optics, sensor technology, and personal computers as design tools. 

Novel Battery Technology Energy Storage Electrical Ground Fault Protection Powerline Carrier Technology Heat Transfer Backup Power Supply Oil Field Heating and Instrumentation Engineering Safety Requirements in Nuclear Power Generation

Hazardous Safety of Explosive Gases Process Control Software Instrumentation Hardware Fiber Optic Data Transmission Fiber Optic Sensors Nitinol Heat Tracing Economic Analysis of Energy Usage

Siegfried Guggenmoos, B.Sc.(Agr.), P.Ag., Principal of Ecological Solutions, Inc. is a Professional Agrologist, with over 30 years of experience in the electric/gas utility corridor vegetation management business.

Mr. Guggenmoos has designed, implemented and provides assessments of utility vegetation management programs. In evaluating the prudence of vegetation management programs Mr. Guggenmoos has developed methodologies to assess their efficacy by predicting the impact of vegetation management program as practiced, on the future costs and reliability of electric systems.

Areas of Consultation:

• Storm hardening electric transmission and distribution systems to quantitatively manage tree-caused service interruptions
• Advise and develop protocols for assessments of power line tree exposure and mitigation
• Advise on least cost vegetation management by synchronizing economics and ecology
• Advise on impacts of vegetation management program alternatives, modifications
• Provide context for vegetation management, greenhouse gas mitigation measures in a competitive energy market
• Facilitate for management, staff, contractors and stake holders an actionable understanding of ecological principles and their impacts on vegetation management needs and costs
• Provide project management; expert review of programs and proposals
• Develop and advise on quantification, monitoring and verification of biotic greenhouse gas mitigation measures

Electrical Safety Group Inc. provides consulting services in Occupational Electrical Safety for matters critical to electrical safety, including:

• Codes
• Standards
• Regulations
• Safe Work Practices
• Management Systems
• Inherently Safer Designs
• Reliability

Click here for my current CV

Partner and Principal Consultant, H. Landis “Lanny” Floyd II, PE, CSP, CMRP, CRL, CESCP, Life Fellow IEEE, has over 45 years of experience in Electrical Safety in the Workplace. His work has advanced the application of Human Factors Engineering, Electrical Technology, and Safety Management Systems in preventing occupational electrical injuries. 

Mr. Floyd retired from DuPont in 2014, holding the positions of Principal Consultant - Electrical Safety & Technology, and Global Electrical Safety Competency Leader. For more than 35 years, Mr. Floyd has focused on electrical safety in the construction, operation, and maintenance of industrial and commercial facilities. This included safety management systems, competency renewal, work practices, and the application of technologies critical to electrical safety performance. From 1992 to 2014, he led the team that designed and facilitated implementation of a strategy for continuous and sustainable improvement in occupational electrical safety for DuPont Global Operations. This work enabled breakthrough performance in prevention of serious injuries and fatalities from electrical energy in DuPont facilities worldwide. In 2013, Mr. Floyd was invited to join the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he teaches in the Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Master of Engineering degree program. 

Author / Speaker - Actively involved in professional organizations spanning electrical engineering, occupational health and safety, and maintenance and reliability, Mr. Floyd has authored or co-authored more than 70 papers and articles and has given more than 150 presentations at conferences, seminars and webcasts in his work to advance the practice of electrical safety. He has been an invited speaker on electrical safety in Australia, China, Brazil, Western Europe, and throughout North America. 

View Lanny Floyd's Expert Witness Profile.

Envista Forensics is a global leader in Forensic Engineering & Recovery Solutions. They provide Cause & Origin, Failure Analysis, Fire and Explosion Investigations, Accident Reconstruction, Damage Evaluations and Equipment Restoration Services following disasters of all kinds. Envista has offered Consulting Services to the insurance, legal and risk management industries, as well as businesses, public entities, and universities for over 25 years. Their Experts travel globally from 30 offices located across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., Australia and Singapore.

Insurance Industry / Claims Professionals - Envista understands the need to save money and expedite the claim, to serve the insured and reduce uncertainty. They offer a menu of services that address insurers’ needs for timely, reliable information, as well as their need to satisfy the policyholders. Envista's insurance clients include Property Adjusters, Casualty and Liability Adjusters and Examiners, Boiler & Machinery Specialists, Inland and Ocean Marine Surveyors, Subrogation and Recovery Professionals, SIU (Special Investigation Units), Forensic Accountants, and Lloyd's & London Market.

Businesses - Envista understands that buildings, equipment, data and other assets are critical to the profitable operation of any business. They are proud to offer a variety of services that help businesses protect themselves when they need it most. Envista offers specialized expertise with all types of business, especially Manufacturers, Technology Companies, Food Processing, Hospitals, Medical / Dental Care, Laboratories, R&D (Research & Design), Schools and Universities, Law, Accounting, and other Professional Service Firms, Banking, Securities, Financial, Energy, Transportation, Retail, and Broadcast and Entertainment.

Universities & Public Entities - Risk Managers and Business Officers responsible for the operations of colleges, universities, local government and other entities have the challenging role of working to prevent financial exposure following disasters involving business-critical equipment, buildings/structures, data/networks, as well as safety. Envista engineers and technicians have over a quarter century’s worth of experience providing forensic consulting for college risk professionals, as well as the insurance carriers and legal professionals who serve them.

Consulting Services:

• Equipment Damage Assessments
• Forensic Engineering / Causation Analysis
• Building & Structure Damage Assessments
• Equipment Restoration & Preservation
• Evaluation of Repair and Replacement
• Project Management of Repair and Recovery Efforts Options
• Data Recovery
• Computer Forensics
• Forensic Video Services
• Cyber Incident Analysis

View Envista's Expert Witness Profile.

A Licensed Professional Engineer in 11 states, John Averrett specializes in Electrical Shock / Electrocution, Utilities, Lightning Strikes, and Grounding cases involving death, personal injury, industrial equipment failure, vehicular accidents, fire cause/origin, contract, and construction disputes. 

Areas of practice include: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; other states by comity. 

John Averrett is Executive Vice President of Goodwyn Mills & Cawood headquartered in Montgomery, AL. He has more than 25 years' experience in plan development for governmental, municipal, industrial and commercial clients and is currently coordinating a group of twelve other electrical engineers and designers. In addition to his design efforts, Mr. Averrett's experience includes work with electric utilities that includes transmission, sub-stations, and distribution; work with investigating lightning strikes; work with investigating grounding insufficiencies; and work analyzing and providing solutions for arc flash hazards.

Litigation Support - Mr. Averrett offers expert witness services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. He provides site review, thorough reporting, deposition, and trial testimony as needed nationwide.

Electrical Engineering Electrocution Lightning Lightning Protection Arc Flash Electrical Safety

Building Analysis Grounding Shock Electric Shock Drowning Breaker Coordination Electrical Utility Districution