electrocuted

Not at home, but tonight in Baltimore, a girl was tying her shoe and had her foot on the 12 or 15 foot fence behind home plate of a softball field, and she was electrocuted (to death). On tv, one could see an electric wire that must have run above the fence, lying on the fence.

I don't know if the wire ran above the fence when the wire wasn't sagging, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Reply to
mm
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Uhh. Electrocute means killed; don't need to add it. Kind of like saying killed dead. Strange how people don't know that some words mean the person died, e.g.,"drown," "smothered," etc.

More strange and to the point is how a live wire on a metal fence (chain link) that is grounded through the fence and the supports in the ground, sends electricity through the person touching the fence. You would think the electricity would travel the path of least resistance. But, certainly lightening travels in strange ways.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

Can you reference this? Hard to imagine why the electricity would have followed a path through her shoe and body to ground, rather than just through the fence and fence posts. but perhaps there was a reason.

Reply to
Toller

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Reply to
willshak

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They all sat around praying for her. No one ever heard of CPR?

Bob

Reply to
RobertM

BGE, (Baltimore Gas and Electric) has said their equipment was NOT involved. So at this point no one knows exactly why this child died. Yes you can see line hangin down near the fence. But to me those lines look like they are maybe the tension line that holds the cables taught between poles. But at this point BGE is saying "NOT THEIR EQUIPMENT"

Searcher

Reply to
Shopdog

Google the concept of "parallel circuit" for an explanation.

Reply to
Doug Miller

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Disclaimer: I don't know anything more about this story than what I've read in this NG and the referenced URL.

Consider another possibility. The article was somewhat confusing. First it said she leaned against the fence, then it said she put her foot against the fence. Maybe they got cause and effect reversed. She might have been breathing erratically because of a medical problem and leaned up against the fence because she was starting to get dizzy. To the witnesses, it would have appeared that everything was normal until she leaned against the fence and then suddenly dropped to the ground.

It's also possible that the fence posts might have been routed in concrete and that her body provided the best path to ground, but if she was wearing sneakers and simply put her foot against the fence, the sneakers should have provided sufficient insulation. She still would have needed an alternate path to the fence and to the ground. I think that if the fence really were live, someone (police, fire, other) would have found a way to determine whether the fence was charged.

I think that a key piece of information is missing from this article.

Reply to
Nick Danger

Maybe several key pieces. Newspaper stories are often not very reliable and often misleading. You have to remember most newspaper and TV reporters know very little about anything related to electricity, biology, medicine, or any science. I use to collect silly statements published in newspapers. One article, don't remember the subject, was memorable in mentioning a "single celled insect."

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

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I agree that no one knows at this point what really happened. It's possible that she wasn't even shocked at all and just died from a pre-existing medical condition. However, a sneaker doesn't provide sufficient insulation. Sneakers are often damp, have cracks, gaps or other defects which allow an electric current to flow, especially if it's a higher voltage as you would have on a utility wire. I remember being at a car crash one night years ago, where a utility pole was knocked down. Wires were hanging over the car. A bystander picked up a tree branch and was using it to try to move the wires, because wood isn't a conductor right? But this is 14KV potentially live line and a random dead tree branch has moisture, could even be saturated. Not a smart move.

I think that if the fence really were

Reply to
trader4

Yes, it was chain link, and fwiw taller and wider than such things were when I was little.

Absolutely. I didn't even think of that this time, but I even asked about this here once, about why would, as in Goldfinger, a heater thrown in a tub electrocute someone when the quickest path to the ground seemed to be through the water to the drain. Or if the drain wasn't a ground, what would be?

Surely the fence poles in the ground made a better ground than the rubber sole of her sneakers. Or even a leather sole. It hasn't even rained for days.

Reply to
mm

Because .0001ohms resistance of the fence alone is still MORE resitance than the same .0001ohms + the 1meg ohms provided by a sneaker.

Reply to
Noozer

I think that is the understatement of the year.

Reply to
George

Don't they have to have at least 6 cells, one for each leg?

Reply to
mm

Aren't you agreeing with me?

By the lack of rain, I meant that the victim wasn't standing on mud or in wet grass, whereas maybe the posts go down to wet soil. (although I hadn't considered the fence poles being mounted in cement.)

I'm saying the current should have gone thRough the fence.

Missed the first 10 or 20 seconds of the story at 6:30, but it seems there is a light pole erected about a year ago, and someone today had painted a red line from it to the backstop.

So at this point, it seems the cable resting on the backstop had nothing to do with it, and people just jumped to that conclusion. Kudos to whoever suggested this.

I looked at the URL someone posted, but by the time I got there, there was no picture, and the news this evening showed pictures the ground and the base of that light pole.

This still doesn't say why the backstop wasn't grounded sufficiently and would go through her.

I'll try to find the story at 11PM.

And I'll try to look in the paper, but I really don't like the Sunday paper anymore. So much bulk I have to get rid of.

Reply to
mm

Yep, sounds about right. Just like trees, one cell for each branch, right?

Reply to
George E. Cawthon

The current will go through the fence and to ground via multiple paths. It doesn't all have to go one way. The poles in the earth have some finite and significant resistance. As does the path through the girl and to ground. You could have 20 amps going to ground through the fence poles, 50ma going through the girl, and it could be fatal.

Reply to
trader4

As mentioned previously, Current does indeed seek out shortest patch, but that does not mean that would only take that path. Someone else mentioned parallel circuits, that hold true.

Other conditions could have been post in cement creating more of an insulation barrier, group around posts was dry not providing sufficient grounding to sink most of the current, etc.

And since do not have enough facts about the incident, only guessing.

Reply to
MC

It is very unlikely that encasing metal fence post in concrete would increase there impedance. Work done by MR. Ufer during world war two showed that concrete encased electrodes have a lower impedance to earth than the same electrode buried directly. The obvious caveat is that the concrete must not be poured into holes lined with plastic or any other non conductive material.

-- Tom of the sparks and arcs

"This alternating current thing is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use." Thomas Alva Edison

Reply to
Tom Horne

Actually, I'm pretty sure that the best path to ground is back through the toaster, unless whoever threw it cut the nuetral (and ground, if any) first.

Mind you, I don't plan to TEST this theory.

Reply to
Goedjn

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