Electrocution By Urination

[SportBikeStain]

An Elma, Washington man, 50 years old, was accidentally killed by urinating on a downed power line after his one-car crash took down a power pole.

Gray's Harbor County Sheriff reported that man was not hurt from the collision with a power pole on Friday night, 28 Feb 2010. He then called family members to retreave him. When family arrived, he was found dead. The Sheriff's Department was then called to the scene.

"The Sheriff Department said the man apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but did not see the live wire. There will be an autopsy, but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through the body."

2 March 2010, Seattle Times Newspaper, Page B-2

[cathman]

I bet that was not a sight most would want to view. High voltage electricity burns severely, and I would image his genital area was the location of some of those burns. Most power poles' high voltage starts around 3,000 volts, nothing to joke around with.

[SportBikeStain]

'The Seattle Times' has updated the story. The dead man's family has complained that the Sheriff's Department was wrong. The family states that his left hand was the area the electricity traveled. The deceased must have grabbed the powerline while urinating.

Additionally, a standing male's urine breaks into droplets before reaching the ground. Thus, a piss stream will not carry an electric current, unless the powerline carries a high amperage.

[grizz]

Let's look at that hapless electrocution victim for a minute. . .
I wonder if the high voltage line (typically 13 kilovolts) was
lying across the victim's car. . . It would stand to reason that if he had been busting for a piss, he would have opened the door and jumped out of his car, WITHOUT TOUCHING THE CAR BODY; then, when getting back in, he touched the car body and got blasted into the next world.
If he had wet shoes and if the ground was wet, his body would have been well-grounded and with the car body 13 kilovolts above ground and insulated by the car tires, the rest is easy to figure out.

Incidentally, I would NOT want to piss on a wire carrying 13 kilovolts--
Thirteen kilovolts can arc the better part of an inch!

Grizz

[SportBikeStain]

Grizz, I am know 'The Seattle Times' web-site changed the story due to electrocuted man's family request. That is why I referenced the printed page. Have you found information that I have not?

1.) The powerline's volts/amps are unknown to me.
2.) I am unaware if the powerline touch any part of the man's car. I am aware the powerpole was impacted by the automobile. Thus, knocking the pole over and laying the powerline in the roadside vegatation.
3.) The path of electrocution is traced by the electricity's burn marks where the current enters the body. The human body has a very high ohm. Ohm is a measurement of flow resistance. Example: a cook stove's electric eye is 300 ohm. Human tissue is higher. So, the electricity will heat the tissue, cause burns, sometimes heating body's moisture to where the tissue will burst from steam vapor. These tissues may have smoked, split and even splattered. These being his penis & left hand.

[grizz]

Let me tell the truth. . . I was pissing in the wind.

I cooked up my scenario out of the whole cloth
(except for the 13 kilovolts-- That is a standard "local"
distribution voltage)

From what you said, it is clear that that hapless pisser completed an electrical circuit by touching SOMETHING with his left hand and SOMETHING ELSE with his piss stream. . . Logic would dictate that he was touching something at earth potential with his left hand and the piss stream hit something that was 13 kilovolts above earth. . . If he had touched something that was 13 kilovolts above earth with his left hand, chances are that there would have been a flashover at the soles of his shoes. . . and his such and such would NOT have been involved.

Incidentally, with a human body, the SKIN has a rather HIGH electrical resistance, but IF the VOLTAGE* is sufficient to PUNCTURE the skin and
create a path through the interior of the body, the resistance drops from
many tens of thousands of ohms to less than a thousand ohms--
A piddling amp at 13 kilovolts equals thirteen kilowatts, which is quite a bit of POWER. . . Visualize an electric tea pot and multiply it by 13.

Grizz

*13 kilovolts is more than enough to puncture the skin. . .

[JohnCPigg]

Just noticed a post by some garden pigg about a dog and cat team known by their first names Ren & Stimpy. The song's entitled Don't Whiz On The Electric Fence". Good advise for anyone who lives in the country or visits rural farms. Prison camp employees and certainly any custodial person in such a compound should really pay heed to the song's warning.

[grizz]

A properly designed "traditional" electric fence charger is designed to
dish out a nasty but far from lethal jolt. . . The "death fences" at some
prisons are another story altogether.

Pissing on an electric fence that is powered from a UL approved fence charger will teach you to NEVER do it a second time. . .
a "redneck cludge" or a "death fence" will make that piss your LAST.
There you are. . .

Grizz

[Beerwhiz]

[grizz]

Maybe I am showing my true colors. . .

A "cludge" is an old-time military expression for slopping something together to get a mission-critical system (like a SONAR system) back on line. . .

What I meant by my "redneck cludge" electric fence was to connect the
"live" electric fence wire to the "hot" side of a 115 volt electric circuit or something equally deadly. . .

My PARENTS and my military background are another story. . .
I lost my Dad when I was twenty (heart attack) and, luckily, my Dad
was a very tough and practical guy. . . he raised FOUR hard-as-nails
kids and he chose a hard-as-nails woman to be his wife. . . On second thought, I think she hardened with age. . .

Don't get me wrong. . . The "iron fists" were in very thick velvet gloves. . .
My parents were (are-- My Mom is alive and as sharp as a tack)
tough when they NEEDED to be. . . most of the time, a sharp look was enough to keep us kids in line. . .


Grizz

Grizz