horse electricuted - stepped on street light j box

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charlie tuna

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the happened in miami florida today -- a guy was out riding his horse when the horse stepped on a metal cover of a street light junction box. T.V. news said both the horse and rider were shocked??? but it killed the horse right on the spot. the power company confirmed the lid of the box was "hot"!!! now there's an arguement as to who is responsible --- the box belongs to the street light people who hire the county maintainance dept. to maintain it... i can't understand how the rider was shocked? maybe shocked at the actions of his horse?
 
charlie tuna said:
the happened in miami florida today -- a guy was out riding his horse when the horse stepped on a metal cover of a street light junction box. T.V. news said both the horse and rider were shocked??? but it killed the horse right on the spot. the power company confirmed the lid of the box was "hot"!!! now there's an arguement as to who is responsible --- the box belongs to the street light people who hire the county maintainance dept. to maintain it... i can't understand how the rider was shocked? maybe shocked at the actions of his horse?
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Just a guess..but..If the horse was electrocuted by current flowing into one hoof and out another (which is the only way that I can imagine), and if the rider's feet were touching the sides of the horse, as the current flowed thru the horse, it also paralled thru the riders legs, which means that the current flowed thru their groin. Ouch.
steve
 
hillbilly said:
Just a guess..but..If the horse was electrocuted by current flowing into one hoof and out another (which is the only way that I can imagine), and if the rider's feet were touching the sides of the horse, as the current flowed thru the horse, it also paralled thru the riders legs, which means that the current flowed thru their groin. Ouch.
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Aha! That's why we shouldn't parallel neutral and EGC conductors!
 
Good Morning, and thanks.
Yes these types of accidents are common, but not well known as there is no central record keeping. The utilites call it stray voltage, but its a ground fault with no circuit return path to the source.
Many of these metal junction boxes do not have bonded lids and frames.
I have come to the conclusion that the when the utilites are following the performance based NESC, for circuits 600 V and under, they should following the prescriptive rules in the NEC.
 
And Good Morning back Tom. I agree with you 100 %.

It is inexcusable that in many cases no blame is ever solidly placed on a (the) guilty party.

Roger
 
charlie tuna said:
I can't understand how the rider was shocked?
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Looking at the article Roger posted, I don't see any evidence that the rider was shocked - his blackout and chest pain could be explained away by being thrown from a horse, and landing on the ground. I imagine a horse would buck pretty severely if it were involuntary muscle contractions from the current.

This is too sad. :(

Hopefully, the powers that be get their acts together and begin requiring some bonding, or these stories are only going to get more frequent.
 
sorry guys,
i only got this info from the local t.v. stations. they said the rider was also shocked --- i can't see how. and i know it doesn't take much current to kill a horse or cow for that matter. this occured in miami-dade county, florida.
over the past five or six years there have been numerous problems with electricutions in this area. what's the results -- the first issue here isn't how did it happen and how can we prevent it from happening again--- it was "not my yob,man" !!! it's all county run operation --- but the street sign department deligated the maintainance of these junction boxes over to the street lighting people who work for the same county. but the street lighting people don't work in or around these junction boxes.

it wasn't but a few years ago that a 16 year old boy was killed when he touched a lighted bus shelter during a rain storm. the county hired an outside contractor to provide electrical service to these shelters which are located on public property without inspections---why--- it was cheaper!!! the installer was not qualified nor licensed. he installed a ballast on a wood bracket in a new all metal structure. the ballast, not properly supported fell and grounded one of the leads to the structure which energized the structure. the structure was not properly grounded --- the only ground conductor applied to the structure was from a ground rod. there was no return path to the power source which was the power company's transformer. was anything learnt????

we have had this arguement before --- some of the blame is our industry's failure to recognize the usefulness of ground rods and also to insist on licensing requirements. the guy who installed the service believed from the old school --- a ground rod IS ground!!! i think the number was 157 people a year we kill on public poles and structures across the country.

the county's attorneys tried to claim the boy was struck by lightning even though the structure was found energized --- and they found other bus bench structure improperly grounded... the people who work on street lighting need to be educated --- but it isn't happening. the requirement of ground rods at pole bases just confuses the issue here and actually i think it's useless on separate structures. i have never witnessed lightning damage that was lessened by the installation of a ground rod!! have you???
 
charlie tuna said:
... the requirement of ground rods at pole bases just confuses the issue here and actually i think it's useless on separate structures. i have never witnessed lightning damage that was lessened by the installation of a ground rod!! have you???
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Yes I have. I was called out to help repair the lighting to an athletic field after a thunderstorm caused what security cameras recorded as multiple liightning strikes to the lighting stantions. The stantions that had ground rods had far less damage than those that did not. The branch circuits from the ones without ground rods were ground faulted at multiple points along there entire length and had to be re pulled. The conductors from the ones with ground rods megged at five hundred volts and were reused. I saw similar differences in lightning damage at a florida air force base on both traffic control lighting stantions and fire alarm pedestals.
 
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