Riddle me this: If you refuse to wear a seat belt while you are driving alone in your car or truck, are you placing the lives of ?innocent people? (meaning not the one who is driving your vehicle) at risk? We know you would be risking your own life and health, and in my state at least you would be risking a $100+ ticket, but would you be risking anyone else?s life or health?
My answer is the same answer I would give to the question of the ?life safety? risks associated with disconnection of a ground rod. Yes, it is a risk. But the circumstances that would have to line up, for the risk to turn into an actual injury (or worse) are numerous, and are unlikely to all occur at the same time and place. From this I conclude that there really is no ?life safety? risk in either scenario.
Why do I see a risk to others, if you don?t wear a seat belt? Because not all collision events terminate immediately after the initial impact. The vehicles involved do not always come to an instant and complete stop. If you are not wearing your seat belt, the initial impact might knock you unconscious, or at least stun you enough to prevent you from discerning your situation and taking any remaining action that might need to be taken. In that case, your car might still be in motion, and you might not know it, and there might be a person standing in the car?s path with their back to your car (i.e., they are looking at the other cars involved in the collision), and you won?t be able to put on the brakes in time to prevent your car from hitting that person. Unlikely? Yes. Many things have to all go wrong at the same time before a person would really be injured in this manner? Yes.
For a ground rod with its GEC disconnected to place a person?s life or safety at risk, many circumstances would have to go wrong, all at the same time. First, it would have to happen in a house with plastic water pipes, or at least one with no metal piping going from inside to a point at least ten feet into the ground beyond the house. Secondly, it would have to happen in a house with not one other metal object that is both bonded (in some way) to the N-G point in the service panel, and (in some way) connected to the dirt surrounding the house. In other words, there is no danger whatsoever, if there is at least one other point within the house that constitutes an effective ground point, even if the NEC would not give you credit for that method of grounding the service. Third, there would have to be some event that raised the voltage level between the (now ungrounded) ?grounded conductor? and planet Earth to a dangerous level. Lightning might do the trick, but how likely is that? Finally, a person would have to be in contact with a metal object while barefoot (or in general not wearing shoes that have adequate electrical insulation properties) during the time period in which the voltage on the grounded conductor is elevated. Unlikely? Yes. Many things have to all go wrong at the same time before a person would really be injured in this manner? Yes.
