From todays Sun
A LAD of two survived a 240 volt electric shock - thanks to his rubber-soled trainers.
Tyler Stone touched live wires hanging from a vandalised street lamp.
But the thick rubber on his shoes earthed the shock. Tyler suffered severe burns to his hands and arms.
Read more:
A proper newspaper:-)?
Cheers
Adam
The Medway Handyman wibbled on Friday 16 July 2010 19:25
I assume he grabbed the wire with one hand that was also touching the metal pole so the current burnt him but did not go through his heart or head. So in that sense the shoes probably saved his life.
I doubt it. The rubber shoes might well have helped by insulating him: if they'd earthed him the current would have flowed through his chest (not a good thing). Although it says different, perhaps he only touched it with one hand / arm and got burns from a live-neutral or live-earth arc (and not actually from current flowing through the flesh). One hand on live and the other on earth/neutral would not have been good either.
genews:dv10o.241631$Hs4.99119@hurricane...
Shock across the chest ....................!!!!!
And didn't 'earth' him or he might well have died!
It's what's known as a misunderstanding ! ;-)
This woman was less lucky, because during a DIY repair, the plug and socket connector had been fitted to the lead, arse about face.
"Laura Hobday was found lying next to her hedge trimmer by neighbours who had earlier heard 22-month-old Josh crying, ?Mummy?. The
35-year-old had received a fatal electric shock from the equipment after a botched home repair on the wiring, an inquest heard."Tragic story.
Andy C
Its free at the burger van :-)
In that circumstance I would expect the shoes to make no difference.
If he had just touched a live wire and was insulated by good shoes he would not have got a shock.
FWIW the rather old shoes that I wear outside are rather poor insulators as I found out when I used some TV equipment outside.
An event, described by a sequence of people one to another, ending with a Sun reporter, none of whom has the faintest idea how someone comes to be electrocuted. Even the severe burns become superficial 2 paragraphs later. It's not a "miracle no one's been killed." Just about every one of us will have received an electric shock (or several), and none of us has been killed. Mostly, people get away with electric shocks without being killed, or even injured.
But there are more nipples in the Daily Sport.
Adam
In message , The Medway Handyman writes
I thought that street lamps were 380volts or something like that
You read it here, it must be true
In message , Tim Watts writes
I had a couple of thousand volts shock yesterday
how they all laughed
Nope. Certainly not mains, and I can't think of anything else either. I stayed away from electric fences as a kid. I've done a fair amount (by DIY standards) of electrical work but am always *very* careful - off at the incomer, off at the circuit, test with a meter before touching anything.
Probably one day...
Pete
Well they are at 400V pd if they are on a different phase to your house supply and you try pinching some electricity from the nearest lamp post.
The inside of the street lamp that a split arse knocked over recently was definately only at 230v with a MEM 10A MCB inside it.
Cheers
Adam
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:
Thick journos.
Yup, that the "journalist" is completely clueless! Surprising give its in the Sun! ;-)
Live wire in one hand and earthed metal pole in the other I would expect to be fatal - its about the worst imaginable situation - full potential across the chest. In that circumstances, bare feet would mitigate a little providing a secondary current path.
One hand on a live wire, and the only path being through the shoes however could be eminently survivable - in the best case he would not even notice the wire was live - less than perfect isolation from earth however could give a shock and burn even of the total current passed was not fatal.
Yup, touching both wires with one hand while otherwise electrically "floating" could give a severe burn but not actually cause fibrillation etc.
Control gear for most streetlamps is 240V supply (although in many cases it generates higher voltage output, for starting).
1000W and higher lamps sometimes require 415V supplies, but you wouldn't find those on standard streetlamp columns, only on the very high multi-head columns.Series streetlighting circuits ran at many kV, but I can't imagine there are any of those still in use nowadays.
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