Re: electrical deaths

On 2024-11-28 12:56, Don Y wrote:

 [I worked on some systems where you had bus bars running floor to
head level.  Remove belt buckle and don't wear "riveted" jeans,
cuff links, wire-rim eyeglasses, etc.  Of course, it would be safer
just to power the beasts off when working on them but you can waste
a lot of time powering them up and down!]

Telephone exchanges had such bars, powered with 48 volts and huge lead acid batteries connected to them. You could not unpower them, that would leave thousands of clients with no service.
A chap of our company was working around there, on a ladder. The "false floor" had one or two tiles removed for accessing the cables beneath. He fell, and he of course tried to grab something to stop the fall. A spanner was on his hand, and of course, it stuck between two copper bars.
It melted.
The entire island (Mallorca?) lost mobile phone service for an hour or two.
He was taken to hospital, unharmed but in shock. Maybe he had some small burning from the hot metal, I don't remember.
There was an investigation, but I never knew about the results.
--
Cheers, Carlos.