As an aside, I find it hard to believe those people work on lines without shorting them out. That would be like cleaning a gun without unloading it first. I'd need to see some actual statistics on electrocution hazards due to backfeed before I sign on to this particular moral panic.

Frankly, I don't think the utilities consider backfeed to be as dangerous to their workers as it is to their business models. It's not in their financial interest to compete with their own customers.