Bear VS Electricity link

[steveb]

Check out this link....Hint, the Grizz loses BIGTIME!:holysheep

http://leverguns.sixgunner.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20661

[454PB]

I have some pictures of a human taken after electrocution on a power pole. I received them at work (in the power generation field) and they had been circulated as a learning tool for safety training. A few days latter, we were told to stop circulating the pictures, someone in the victim's family was quite upset about the fact that they were being e-mailed around. The victim was a lineman, and looked a whole lot worse than this bear, very little clothing left and severe burns. I can understand the family's objections, but they certainly were a powerful reminder of what can happen with the slightest lapse of safety protocol.

[steveb]

Is it the high volts or high amperage that is more dangerous? I've had electricians tell me before its better to get an arm blowed off and knocked back than to be stuck there. My electrical experience consists of plugging up a melting pot for casting bullets!

[carpetman]

steveB--It's the amps. Think of water through a hose. The voltage is the pressure and the amps are the volume. You could have very high pressure but not much volume and it will not wet you down like a large volume even under low pressure would do.

[SharpsShooter]

Is it the high volts or high amperage that is more dangerous? I've had electricians tell me before its better to get an arm blowed off and knocked back than to be stuck there. My electrical experience consists of plugging up a melting pot for casting bullets!


Amps KILL!

[454PB]

It takes 5 milliamps to stop your heart. Yes amperage is damaging, but at transmission voltages of up to 500 KV, you don't even have to contact the conductor. Induction can get you from three feet away. The other problem is that once an arc is established, it's hard to extinguish.

I was also a licensed crane operator and rigger, and we were shown lots of pictures of cranes that contacted high voltage. It's amazing how much damage can happen to million dollar crane in just a few seconds. I've seen line trucks with all the tires blown out by as little as 2400 volts. I've also worked inside power transformers that had faulted and cut 3/4" bolts off just like a cutting torch.

I feel lucky having worked in the power industry for 37 years without ever getting injured by electricity. Some close calls, but no injury.

[StarMetal]

I know in a town I once lived in, an electric company man was killed. They were replacing a pole and if I'm correct I believe they switched and hooked the powelines over to it from the bad pole. He was guiding the new pole into the hole and when he grabbed he was electricuted to death. They said something about moisture in the pole and electricity coming down it. The paper might have messed the article up and maybe it didn't have the lines switched to it and it hit the lines when they were trying to install it in the hole.

A friend and I were working on his car and he dropped a 916 box/openend wrench on the battery. He went to grab it I said NO!!!! In a fraction of a second it turned cherry red as it touched both battery posts. I flipped it off the battery with a long screwdriver. Amazing the energy stored in a car battery.

Joe

[Junior1942]

Many years ago a friend was installing a TV antenna and it touched an overhead power line. It badly burned his hands and arms, but the real damage was in his feet. It blew the bottoms off both of his feet. He was months in recovery.

[versifier]

Amps KILL!

Stupidity kills. (Guns don't kill either, people do.) Even a smart man does stupid things on occasion, and unfortunately it's fairly easy for a stupid person to get a smart man killed.
20 years ago, I wired in a new 200Amp panel in an entryway next to the main door, had just had the linemen turn the power back on, when some stupid 300+lb SOB who wasn't supposed to be on the jobsite came blundering through and pushed the door open. It was this time of year and the temp in the place was well over 100* (Upgrade was for AC) and all I was wearing was shorts, boots, and my toolbelt. I was slammed into the panel and breaker lugs were driven into my breastbone. When I woke up, I was 15' away on the other side of the room, laying on top of the door which had been ripped off of its hinges, on top of porky who was rammed halfway through the studded and sheetrocked wall into the bathroom with shoulder separated and arm broken in several places. Doc said if I hadn't been covered with high salt sweat (it arced over my skin on the outside) I would have been a crispy critter. Still have two scars. I got a decent bonus for agreeing not to sue porky with which I bought (among other things) my favorite rifle and a few other guns since sold or traded, and more moulds and loading tools (what else).
But like I said, it's stupidity that kills. I was just lucky that day his stupidity didn't kill me. Bummer about the bear, but that's Darwin in action.