Red Squirrel
No Lifer
The reason you don't see line men being killed or even hurt due to generator back feeding is because it CANNOT happen.
For example:
I have a 3500 watt generator which is about 30 amps. I'll back feed and power my:
Refrigerator = 500 watts
Freezer = 500 watts
Furnace/heat pump = 1000 watts
Lights, computer/monitor, TV, misc. = 1000 watts
Lets say for example that I turned ON my main breaker during back feeding. What would happen? Within about a few milliseconds, the circuit breaker on my generator would pop and all generator produced electricity would stop. Let's go one step further and say the circuit breaker on my generator malfunctioned and did not pop. My little 3500 watt generator, (which already is powering 3000 of its watts for my home would then try to power the rest of the neighborhood. Within a few milliseconds, it would overload and stop. The load going backwards outside my home would be so large (all my neighbors homes trying to draw electricity) would pop my circuit break very quickly. So even if I forgot to turn off my main breaker, the only problem that would happen is my generator breaker would pop.
My search on the Internet found ZERO stories about any line men who were killed or even hurt due to generator back feeding. Although I did find lots of mis-information.
In order for a lineman to be hurt, you are making the assumption that all the houses around me have turned off their main circuit breaker and there are no other loads to draw from my generator.
That's pretty much what I was saying above. Though I would not dismiss the danger completely, but the odds of it being a danger are probably rather low. There would still be a slight period where the power IS present, so if a lineman is working on a 7,200v line or higher, that split second before the generator overloads and trips might be enough to send a lethal shock to the crew.