What A Way To Go, And How Sad

[The Interpreter]

MONTESANO, Wash. — Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash.

Grays Harbor County sheriff’s Deputy Dave Pimentel (PIM’-en-tel) said Monday 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday and called a relative to pull his car from a ditch.

However, family members found Messenger electrocuted when they arrived.

Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn’t see the live wire. The urine stream likely served as a conductor, allowing the electricity to reach his body.

Pimentel says there will be an autopsy but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through Messenger’s body.

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=12072970

[cgarison]

I call "bullsh!"

http://www.tv.com/mythbusters/barrel-of ... recap.html#

Pissing on the Third Rail:

Can peeing on the electrified third rail of a subway electrocute you? The Mythbusters attempt to find out. The created a new dummy from a skeleton and rigged it up with the ability to pee. (With real urine, at the same speed and pressure as the average human)

They then set up a partial electrified rail to see if it would work. After much testing, they concluded that a normal person could not hurt themself this way because the fluid stream breaks up before it hits the rail. This myth was busted - there's no way to zap yourself unless you're practically laying down.

He may have taken a whiz on the power line and probably got one hell of a tingle in his willy, but he had to have come in contact with it in another way to have actually have a jolt that would kill him. Plus! The downed power line is alternating current, which changes all the factors from the Mythbusters episode referenced above making it that much more difficult to be electrocuted in this manner .

[Ace Purple]

Seems to be real...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... SECTION=US

[Oldiesdude]

Ace Purple said:

Seems to be real...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... SECTION=US

Well there goes the insurance money!

[Bob Campbell]

Talk about getting PISSED OFF!

[Bar Rat]

Apparently, it's not so real after all...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ution.html

The Grays Harbor County sheriff's office says autopsy results show that an Elma man who was killed by touching a downed power line was electrocuted through his hand and not through his urine stream as first suspected.

[lastone]

Residential feeders carry a minimum of 15,000 volts. Most are 30-36,000 volts and that is AC. Piss on it....you're dead! I know many telephone guys who have touched the trunk of a tree that was touching a line only to be knocked all the way back to the truck and tasting copper! Most subway "third rails" are 780 volts DC; aren't they?

[Bob Campbell]

Residential feeders carry a minimum of 15,000 volts. Most are 30-36,000 volts and that is AC. Piss on it....you're dead! I know many telephone guys who have touched the trunk of a tree that was touching a line only to be knocked all the way back to the truck and tasting copper! Most subway "third rails" are 780 volts DC; aren't they?

But...but...it's the amps that kill, not the volts. Ask Frankenstein.
A million volts at 3 amps will curl your hair. A thousand volts at 100 amps and you're a goner.