This article was posted 04/24/2007 and is most likely outdated.

Walk in park becomes a dog owner's nightmare
 

 
Topic - Stray Voltage
Subject
- Walk in park becomes a dog owner's nightmare

April 24, 2007  

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Walk in park becomes a dog owner's nightmare


By Tonya Maxwell and Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporters
Published February 20, 2007

Laura Mercer sobbed Monday evening in a downtown hotel room, remembering the sounds her beloved dog made in the long minutes before his death.

The dog lay near a fountain at the southern end of Grant Park Saturday evening, yelping and screaming, sounding as though he were being brutally stabbed, she recalled.

Instead, Smokey, a Labrador retriever mix, was electrocuted in what Chicago Park District officials are calling "a freak accident."

"I want to know how my best friend of nine years died the most horrible death in front of me," said a distraught Mercer, who was released Monday afternoon from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She said she felt emotionally unable to return home.

"What if this had been a little kid and it was a 5-year-old who put his mitten on the ground and died? I don't want anyone else to have this kind of pain."

Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said the dog stepped on an access panel in the ground along a raised asphalt walkway or promenade east of Michigan Avenue, near 8th Street.

An electrical wire within the access panel had shorted out, she said, and when the dog stepped on the panel Saturday evening, he was fatally shocked.

Chicago police said Monday they were investigating the death of a second dog that died in similar circumstances. But investigators have determined there was no second death, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said today.

Mercer, 30, was hospitalized for shock and for bites inflicted by Smokey. Her husband, Matthew Mock, was out of town at the time of the incident and joined her at the hospital.

"You can prepare yourself that one day you might have to put a dog down, but with this, all her good memories of Smokey have been replaced by this," Mock said.

The route Mercer and Smokey took Saturday in Grant Park was one they had walked innumerable times. They left their condominium at 11th Street and Michigan Avenue about 5:30 p.m. for an evening walk and a quick trip to a dog-friendly video store.

About two blocks away, near 8th Street in Grant Park, Smokey yelped and lifted a paw, Mercer said. She thought the salt or snow was bothering him, maybe a rock.

Then, the 60-pound dog began howling and Mercer said she thought Smokey was having a seizure. She reached for him and he bit her right hand. She pulled away and his teeth grabbed her back left leg, ripping her jeans.

She called an emergency veterinarian clinic on her cell phone and a woman said the dog must be having a seizure and he would calm soon. Then Smokey slumped forward, Mercer said.

She said she then knelt down.

"I was trying to see if he was breathing or if he was dead. I put my fingers down to steady myself and I noticed my fingers tingling. I could feel it moving up through my hands and arms and my legs. It was a kind of a humming," she said, realizing that electricity was flowing from the ground.

She saw another man walking toward her with a dog and she heard the animal yelp.

"I screamed at the man to get out of there, it was going to kill his dog as well," she said, crying at the memory.

In all, Mercer said she believes the ordeal lasted 15 minutes before Smokey died.

She insists that her dog was on asphalt during most of the incident, about 5 feet from the panel Park District officials blame in the death.

The dangers of stray voltage gained national attention after the death of Jodie Lane in New York City in 2004.

She collapsed in slushy, bitter weather in the East Village as she walked her dogs and was electrocuted.

Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill said he is concerned because the park has been trying to attract dogs and dog-owners with a new dog park.

"When something like this happens, people feel nervous," O'Neill said. "We don't want another reason for dog walkers to feel unwelcomed in Grant Park."

 

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Comments
  • I literally think all supervisors should be stripped of their credentials if they allow any worker to leave a circuit in a poor condition. I think the city did not want to spend a dime on maintainence or hire someone who actually understands electricity.. I know if it can find a way it will run thru any obstacle that is conductive so insulate everything.. Id=s that really hard to do.. not really. plastic is cheap and can be used extensively in the ground. and tape is cheap too. well damn I think i figured it out. also what== about hard rubber sleeves or maybe just good old fashioned glue. hmmmm I think I might be on something here. insulate you poor bast----- insulate.lol

    James Ricci
    Reply to this comment

  • OH! GOD. That is SO SHOCKING!!!! Dog Gone IT.

    Bobup ankissmyass
    Reply to this comment

  • This is the reason my dog is trained to use a tick tracer. :) Joking of course, but I\'m amazed at how many electricians don\'t bond a cover only because in some cases the code may say it\'s not required. It doesn\'t take much time or effort to bond mahhole / handhole covers. Only a mechanic / maintenance man that\'s conscientious about his work and safety.

    Stray voltage is usually due to improper installation or a fault in the system that\'s poorly grounded.

    JDH
    Reply to this comment

  • Mike, I value all of your newsletters. The article was misleading do to reason of cause; shorted wire. This incident is a neutral fault/failure. I am not familiar with a "Brooks" enclosure, but assume it is a steel J-box. I strongly agree with Dan P about insulating the enclosure with a PVC J-box, especially when there is a hazard to others. NEC has taken grounding and bonding to the extreme, but has not properly addressed failure to neutral connections.

    T Novak
    Reply to this comment

  • It would be interesting to know whether or not the incident described in the article was caused by incorrect installation, or by poor maintenance of the system. Although the trade unions (including the IBEW) in Chicago were heavily influenced by politics and patronage, the bottom line was that these tradesmen could do the job, and do it correctly. The apprenticeship programs were very thorough and comprehensive. I don't know the present situation, and there is not enough detail about the system in the article.

    Mark Prairie
    Reply to this comment

  • When my oldest daughter and I went for a stroll down our street some many years ago, she let out a shriek and wailed "the pole bit me"!! Wondering what a five year old meant by this and the obvious pain she was in, I returned to the pole the next day with a voltage tester and sure enough, found that 110v was on the guy wire supporting the pole. I notified the utility company and made a quick sign indicating the shock hazard to any other passing pedestrian. End of story and thank God no tragedy here. Just one very scared and tearful child. Could have been worse!!!

    ALAN SCHWARTZ
    Reply to this comment

  • I read your letter about a dog being electrocuted and I was amazed.

    What happed to related information that is pertinent to the electrical trade.

    signed ---- dissaprovingly

    C.Jay
    Reply to this comment

  • For years in South Florida we have stressed the use PVC junction boxes inside of the usual "Brooks" type boxes. Now special interest groups like "Quazite" have lobbies for a Code change to allow non direct burial conductors (THWN) in raceways, to be terminated without a properly listed junction box, as is required with every other raceway system. I fear that this trend will only increase the danger of animals and people coming in contact with exposed voltage. Also Florida's relaxed licensing laws stopped requiring experience and journeymans cards in the electrical trade, which has erroded the quality and pride of workmanship. It is a sad state the lets economics and manufacturer's interests, drive the Electrical Code, the quality of materials, and even workmanship, rather than safety first!

    Dan Prater
    Reply to this comment

  • A sad story....the word has to get out there about this problem.

    Richard
    Reply to this comment

  • This is indeed a sad event..and one which there seems to be an increase of lately.

    Wayne Thomas
    Reply to this comment

  • I feel that stray voltage is not as mysterious as everyone thinks. Itruly believe in ohms law and that there is an explanation for all of these freak accidents. It is such a shame that so many should have to suffer for the greatest cause of electrocutions is in my opinion due to improper grounding. what is lacking is the number of trained individuals and the cover your butt mentality by installers. I would truly like to work for an insurance company to investigate the cause of these stray gremlin voltages and put them in my spotlight which can be harsh to a shoddy installer and put thier feet to the fire where the blame belongs. not just blame it on the lochness monster or the yhetti.

    sherman kearns
    Reply to this comment


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