Underground Wiring Shocking People, Dogs

[lovechild]

Stray Voltage Sending Shocks Through Manholes, Metal Plates



(March 12) - When a New Yorker walking her dogs was electrocuted in January by faulty wiring under the pavement, it seemed like the freakiest of accidents - until several pets in other big cities were killed or shocked in the weeks that followed.

Now utilities are rushing to fix the problems - blamed largely on work crews tearing up the streets - and to reassure the public. Dog owners, meanwhile, are buying booties for their pets to insulate their paws.

"People are getting current up through their arms or their legs," Boston Councilor-at-Large Maura A. Hennigan said this week. "How much more current do they need to get for us to do something about it?"


On Jan. 16, 30-year-old architect Jodie Lane was electrocuted while walking through New York's East Village with her two dogs. Her dogs were shocked first. She noticed they were in distress, and when she tried to help them, she stepped onto the electrified metal cover of a utility box.

An investigation by Consolidated Edison found that utility workers had failed to properly wrap an exposed wire.

In Chicago, a dog was electrocuted Jan. 27 after touching a charged metal grate. City inspectors found clipped wiring under a utility box nearby.


"It's being caused by contractors that are doing sloppy jobs of cleaning up their mess."
-Robert Gonsalves, chairman of electrical engineering at Tufts University

At least three dogs have been electrocuted over the past four years in Boston, which like New York is an old, densely populated city with many underground systems.

George Morton was walking Oscar, his yellow Labrador, through the city's Charlestown neighborhood last month when the dog suddenly froze on the sidewalk, let out a piercing howl and began thrashing about violently. The animal died on the spot, killed by 100 volts from an underground cable.

Humans are generally in less danger than dogs because their rubber- or leather-soled shoes serve as insulators.

Experts say the phenomenon is a result of an ever-expanding network of underground lines and constant digging by work crews.

"It's being caused by contractors that are doing sloppy jobs of cleaning up their mess," said Robert Gonsalves, chairman of electrical engineering at Tufts University. "Contractors will come in and get a permit and dig up the streets and do this and that, and they don't put it back in the right conditions."

After the electrocution in New York, Con Ed tested about 260,000 underground structures, manholes, metal plates and service boxes and found less than 1 percent of them had stray voltage, company spokesman Joe Petta said. Still, two more dogs were shocked in New York this week.

In Boston, the main utility, NStar, took out full-page ads in the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe this week, pledging to check more than 30,000 manholes. But they blamed construction crews, not utility workers.


"It is unacceptable when construction crews can damage our system, walk away from a dangerous situation and then assume no responsibility for what they have done," NStar president Thomas J. May said in the ad.

In one Boston case, a dog was shocked after someone dug up a street in Chinatown, destroyed a wire, and then tried to repair it by wrapping it with police caution tape, NStar spokeswoman Christina McKenna said.

The street was still damp from a rainfall, and as the dog walked by a manhole cover, it got a jolt that singed its paws and sent it yelping.

"I've never heard a dog make a sound like that before. It was frightening," said the owner, Nora Hayes.

Some owners are now buying rubber and leather mitts for their pooches' paws.

"We've had a large interest in that since the first news came out a few months ago," said Andy Chan, general manager of a Petco in Boston.

[Mother Mo]

Oh, that's dreadful! I wsih the ones who did the shoddy jobs much karma.

[creapyrob]

100 volts is not a lot of juice. Yes it can kill you but the low voltage is why it kills you. Also its not the volts its the amps. Voltage is like how much water is in a pipe, amps are the pressure at which the water comes out.

Electricity causes your muscles to contract AND burns your skin. 220 volts like your electric dryer carries enough amp that when it burns your skill it will blow the wiring out of your hand. 110 volts like out of a wall socket does not. Your muscles will contract and thats about it. SO if you grab a wire your fucked cause your muscles are already contracted and you're in for the big jolt. As electricians say "110 will grab you and hold on." 480 volts used in a lot of industrail equipment when a person causes an arc really bad things happen, first there is a ball of fire as the oxygen in the water in your body and in the air surrounding you is burned away. Then there are at least second and mainly third degree burns across your skin as all the moisture is cooked away and you are left with the carbon in your skin. And well you can see where it goes from there.

110 volt Alternating Current at 60 cycles, the standard American electricity, is the MOST DANGEROUS power in the world. Your heart, if you have one, beats at 62 beats per minute (or 62 cycles). So if your unfortunate enough to get electricuted the electricity crossing your body is at 60 cycles and if the power goes across your heart it will upset the rythm and in most cases cause your heart to stop beating and you die. 0.10 amps across your heart is enough to kill you. So for the love of all thats good in this world don't play electrician at home unless you know what you're doing.