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Public Shock and Electrocution Highest During Summer Months  
 
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What makes public shock and electrocution cases so unique is they occur in areas where we don't normally expect electrical hazards to exist: principally our city sidewalks, streets and play areas.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Database analysis on public shock and electrocution cases collected by Utility Testing and Geographic Information Systems (UT/GIS, UTGIS) shows summertime, but more specifically the month of June, as being the most hazardous period for humans during the year from electrical faults on publically accessible municipal and utility infrastructure equipment. This equipment typically includes metal street light poles, pools/fountains, junction boxes and fences, but coordinated testing programs have also found unsafe voltage levels on fire hydrants, phone booths, bus shelters and amusement park rides to name a few others.

According to UTGIS President Mark Voigtsberger. "While electrical faults on municipal and utility infrastructure equipment occurs all year long, bare feet, open-toe shoes and exposed skin surfaces increase the hazard potential during the summer time frame." Voigtsberger recommends trying to develop a situational awareness to reduce the possibility of public shock and electrocutions this summer. "The visual symptoms of someone being shocked or electrocuted are identical to scores of other possible medical conditions. Take stock of the situation before trying to rescue someone or if you think you are being shocked. You may only have a few seconds to make a life or death decision."

For more information contact:

Mark Voigtsberger, President
(888) 78-UTGIS
UT/GIS
PO Box 881585
Port St Lucie, FL, 34988-1585
www.utgis.com

 
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Comments

  • I am concerned when electrical contact reports are combined with electrocution. These should be treated as separate categories and not combined. The combination of these two distinct areas of electrical contact are typically done to over-emphasize the seriousness of the problem. I would like to see these shown on the graph as separate issues to better understand how serious this issue is to the industry.

    Bruce Fredrick  June 14 2016, 8:47 pm EDT

    • Reply from: Mike Holt   June 15 2016, 8:15 am EDT
    Would be nice.

    Reply from: Mark Voigtsberger UTGIS   June 15 2016, 12:18 pm EDT
    Hi Bruce

    I just sent Mike a chart that should answer your question. I do not know what your term "electrical contact" means.....but took a stab in the dark and considered it to mean "electrical shock".

    Under a soon to be approved IEEE Standard (1695, Guide to Understanding, Diagnosing and Mitigating Stray and Contact Voltage) there is no formal distinction between voltage potential levels that produce shocks and those that produce electrocutions as it applies to "Contact Voltage". Human shocks and electrocutions due to Contact Voltage is what this newsletter is about, although we did not use the term in the write up. In many cases where a public electrocution has occurred, others have come forward and stated they had received an electrical shock on that same object. This is why our data was combined in the original chart on this newsletter- what is a shock to one person could take the life of another.

    I disagree with you on one point: "The combination of these two distinct areas of electrical contact are typically done to over-emphasize the seriousness of the problem".

    Generally, people (meaning pedestrians) do not report electrical shocks if they or their dog gets a little tingle from an object like a light pole- they simply go on their way.

    Mobile scanning of cities by myself and other firms find very large numbers of publicly accessible objects with contact voltage potential on them. 30+ energized objects per night is normal. Some are at full phase voltage, but many are 1-5 volts. Almost all of these could produce a shock or electrocution under the right conditions, but when cross referenced, none were reported to 911 or 311 call centers.

    Because public electrocutions usually make the local or national news, we believe those numbers to be somewhat accurate.

    When looking at the number of public electrical shocks due to contact voltage, we believe that number to be greatly under reported.

    Based on actual field testing, the number of found publicly accessible objects with voltage potentials high enough to shock or electrocute a human is substantially higher than the cases reported in the attached chart.

    Hope this addressed your questions,

    Mark

    Reply from: David Rifkin   June 15 2016, 12:42 pm EDT
    As with Electric Shock Drowning it all depends. Generally a voltage gradient of about 2v/ft in the water will cause enough current to flow through a "nominal" person to cause paralysis (10-12ma). But it varies by person (skin type, fat layers, surface area, skin condition, etc).

    Will some people survive a 2v/ft gradient? Yes. Could a 1.5v/ft gradient cause paralysis in some people? I think so.

    For the same touch voltage, the resistance from this point to ground (the path the dangerous shock current will take) determines the magnitude of current in the body. Bare feet or rubber soled shoes? Wet floor or dry floor? The current level then determines the physiological effect on a particular individual.

    Maybe this is why they don't break out the touch voltage level in the electrocution data. It likely happens at a wide array of voltages.

    David Rifkin
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