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Girl, 14, electrocuted at Druid Hill Park
 

 
Topic - Safety
Subject - Girl, 14, electrocuted at Druid Hill Park

August 21, 2006  

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Girl, 14, electrocuted at Druid Hill Park

 

May 6, 2006

 

A 14-year-old girl who leaned against a fence during a church softball game was electrocuted about 8 o'clock last night at Druid Hill Park, a fire official said.

Teammates said they saw the girl, whose name was not released, put her foot on the fence and then fall to the ground, said Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department. The girl, who was not breathing, was transported to Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Linda Foy, a spokeswoman for BGE, said that after a preliminary investigation into the incident, it appeared that BGE's equipment was not involved. She said it was unclear last night whose equipment was.

Carolyn Bethea, commissioner of the Christian Co-Ed Softball League, a group of about 16 church teams that play softball Fridays and Saturdays, said the girl was playing for a team associated with Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown.

Bethea, who plays for a team sponsored by a church called Set The Captives Free Outreach Center, which was playing a double-header against Colonial Baptist, said that after the girl fell to the ground she started breathing erratically.

Bethea said the girl's mother was with her and was "watching her little girl." Bethea said members of both teams prayed over the girl until paramedics took her away in the ambulance.

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

Parks' underground cables to be checked
May 11, 2006 

A contractor will survey city parks for underground cables near metal fences after the recent electrocution of a 14-year-old softball player at Druid Hill Park, city officials said yesterday.

"We want to know where the lines are and if any of them could pose a hazard," said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin O'Malley.

She said the city also has hired a contractor to examine the underground cable at Field No. 8, where Deanna Green was killed May 5, to determine whether city officials correctly assessed the cause of the accident.

Parks Director Connie A. Brown announced Wednesday that Green died because the metal tip of an unprotected fence post came into contact with the cable and the girl touched two metal fences at once, completing a deadly electrical circuit.

In written statement to The Sun yesterday, Brown called the parks survey "precautionary" and added that there is no reason to believe that any fence is electrified. Fences at ball fields were tested last weekend after the teenager's death, and none was found to be electrified.

Guillory said that if the contractor hired to survey parks for underground cables finds one near a metal fence -- whether at a basketball court or picnic area -- city officials will "determine what steps to take next." She said city officials could move cables or fences if there is a risk of electrocution.

In other developments, Brown clarified the history of construction at Field No. 8. He said the ball field where Green was killed was constructed in 1973 or 1974 and that the underground cable was laid at the same time.

A contractor replaced one of the fences in the mid-1980s, and it was erected close to where the old one had been, Brown said. It is unclear whether the contractor had viewed the original plans for the field, but Brown said yesterday that those plans did not specify the exact location of the cable.

He said the original fence was erected near the cable and that the new one was placed directly over it.

The new fence also had longer posts, one of which eventually came in contact with the cable.

Lynn Anderson

lynn.anderson@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun


'Perfect storm scenario' led to electrocution
May 12, 2006

A series of factors led to the electrocution of a 14-year-old softball player in Druid Hill Park on Friday: The exposed tip of a metal fence post came in contact with an underground electrical cable, and the girl touched a second metal fence, completing a deadly circuit, a city official said yesterday.

"We've determined how this happened," city parks Director Connie A. Brown announced yesterday after four days of near silence from City Hall regarding the accidental death of Deanna Green of Randallstown.

In his first public statement about the incident, Mayor Martin O'Malley said that he had contacted the family to express his sympathy.

"This is such a deeply tragic and sad loss of life," he said. "Any of us who have kids, you know your heart really goes out to the parents."

Green's parents, Anthony and Nancy Green, declined to comment on the announcement regarding the cause of their daughter's death.

The teenager was playing softball with other members of her church Friday night when she touched two metal fences at Field No. 8. Witnesses said the eighth-grader was stretching between the two fences when she fell to the ground unconscious. She died later that night.

Brown called the incident a "perfect storm scenario," and said that other park visitors might have also touched the same electrified fence and walked away without injury.

He said Green was killed because she happened to touch both fences at the same time, action that allowed a large quantity of electrical current to flow through her body. Metal is an excellent conductor of electrical current.

He said the electrified fence was constructed at least 20 years ago in an effort to protect players from foul balls. The fence was erected by a contractor who failed to encase at least one of the poles anchoring it to the ground in concrete, Brown said.

Over the years, the tip of the exposed pole came in contact with the underground cable and the fence became electrified when insulation covering the cable wore away, Brown said.

"At that point, the pole became electrified," he said.

Brown said the name of the contractor who performed the work is not known. He said he had contacted a retired parks employee who handled contract work around the time that the fence was constructed, but the former employee could not remember who had done the work. Brown said the job was not performed by city employees.

Brown said a severed ground wire prevented a power outage at the ball field that might have alerted park officials to a potential problem with the underground cable. He said park maintenance crews would never dig up an underground cable unless there was some reason to do so, such as a light tower not working properly. There is no maintenance schedule for underground cables, he said.

City officials said the underground cable at Field No. 8 was installed sometime before the fence. They said it carries up to 277 volts of electricity, but on the night Green was killed it was carrying 232 volts.

Brown said Field No. 8 would remain closed to the public until further notice.

He said park officials are considering inspecting all metal fences at city parks to see if there are electrical cables or wires underneath them.

Lynn Anderson

lynn.anderson@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

The city's explanation

 

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Comments
  • Fence put in 20 years ago. When was cable put in? Why was fence post directly over cable?....or vice-versa? NO GROUND FAULT PROTECTION?...AND PLEASE DON'T TELL ME IT WASN'T REQUIRED BY CODE. CODE IS JUST A MINIMUM, SO WHY WASN'T GFP PUT IN?...OR-IF IT WAS, WHAT WERE THE SETTINGS?

    Jim
    Reply to this comment

  • Nice try, but the first fence (the one "electrified" has all kinds of metal parts touching the ground, so where was the short to ground?

    Wade
    Reply to this comment

  • I DONT SEE HOW THE BROKEN GROUND WIRE HAS ANY RELEVANCE IN THIS CASE. EVEN IF THE GROUND WIRE WAS NOT BROKEN THERE WAS NO MENTION OF THE FENCE BEING BONDED TO IT.HOW COULD IT HAVE CAUSED A POWER OUTAGE NOTIFYING THEM OF THE PROBLEM IF THE FENCE WAS NOT BONDED TO THE GROUND WIRE?

    JAMES PIANALTO
    Reply to this comment

  • If the fence post split the hot leg of the circuit why did'nt this trip a breaker or a cutout.Would'nt this be a direct short to ground.

    Forde Downour
    Reply to this comment

  • I work as an electrical inspector in a suburb of Chicago.

    We would not be having this conversation if an underground utilities service was called before new fence posts were installed.

    I am not hindsighting, locating underground utilities is just a safe good business practice and in most areas......free.

    A sad story.

    My prayers to the family

    Dave
    Reply to this comment

  • A ground fault protector might have saved her, maybe not. If the ground was very dry the second fence might have been the only potential. This installation should have been in conduit. Jack

    Jack
    Reply to this comment
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  • I know the city is trying to cover thier butt, but 20 years ago there was probably no miss digg, the contractor was told to put the fence there. Its a tragedy but bad cordination.

    jon burton
    Reply to this comment

  • Regarding the recent story of the Electrocution at Druid Hill Pard. Are there any NEC code requirements which address when metal fencing system must be properly grounded?

    John F Kramer
    Reply to this comment

  • If the two fences were bonded together, like any other extraneous conductive parts per NEC 250.4(A)(4), a better path for the current would have been provided than the young girls body. That's why substations and communications tower sites require the nearby fencing to be bonded to the ground plane. I know that's expecting a bit much for a city park, especially 20 years ago, but it would be a good idea today.

    Mike Glaser
    Reply to this comment

  • Get records of the one call notification. Either there was no notification, the operator of the circuit did not mark the circuit location properly, or the fence installer ignored the markings.

    Investigate the lack of ground on the fence and the panel with the lighting circuit. The post was installed in the earth like a ground rod so there could not have been a proper ground on the lighting panel.

    What was the circuit voltage? The story is long on sympathy for the victim and short on relevant facts. While I feel for the victim and her family, that is not the issue here.

    Jim Goddard
    Reply to this comment
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  • This does not suprise me, upsets me, but not surprise. Other areas of the country are not using services like "Miss Dig". Was the wiring not in pipe? who did the verification of the voltage on the tragic night at "232 volts" ???

    Chris
    Reply to this comment

  • I had a situation close to this several years back when a 480 volt line shorted in the metal thimble at the top of a 80' concrete pole. This placed a 110 volt potential on fence 10' away. A meter between earth ground and climbing stakes on pole gave a potential of 277v. At first I thought the same thing ,that a pole was touching a feeded. The concrete pole was 15 feet in the ground with a ground rod at the base., but was still not effectively grounded to the point of tripping. I agree that the underground feeders shuld have been encased in concrete, but in my situation it would have made no difference.

    Bill Sims
    Reply to this comment

  • Lots of lessons learned from a tragic accident. 1. Value of underground cable locates 2. Deadly nature of electric current 3. Poorly investigated electrical accidents just cause more speculation and confusion 4. High impedance ground faults do not always clear the overcurrent protection 5. the preciousness of life and the brevity of life

    Richard S
    Reply to this comment

  • Most electrical utilities will not do cable location for customer branch circuit and feeder cables. For that matter, First Energy does not do locating of service laterals on the line side of the meter, partly because the insurance companies have insisted that the service point of an underground service is the start of the service lateral so that National Electrical Code is followed. That is, the insurance companies require anything that is touching customer property to be the stricter of National Electrical Code or National Electrical Safety Code.

    The 232 volts could be an artifact of a medium resistance connection between the fence post and the direct burial cable.

    This is also a reason why some localities have banned direct burial electrical services. Besides fence posts the Tree Root Circuit Breaker Method and the Rock Circuit Breaker Method also play hob with direct burial cables. Sure, NEC says that I can remove rocks from the trench, remove rocks from the backfill, and smooth out the bottom of the trench, but sticking in a conduit avoids that. However, direct burial cable is still a good option for a short 60 amp feeder to a golf practice shack or whatever.

    Michael R. Cole
    Reply to this comment


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