Re: electrical deaths

On 11/28/2024 4:15 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Something I was taught, which has beceome an ingrained habit, is to
touch anything for the first time with the back of your hand or fingers;
if it is 'live' you will jump away.

Wear insulated shoes and always keep one hand in your pocket (no
path through the heart).
A similar problem (though one that most people never have to deal
with) is approaching someone "stuck" on a live line.  The instinct
to act quickly has to be tempered with thought of how you are
going to ensure your MOMENTUM carries the victim AND YOU away from
the hazzard!
Wiring around the house, I connect a table lamp into the circuit,
VERIFY THE LAMP IS LIT (not just "switched on") and THEN go in
search of the appropriate breaker -- and verify the light to now
be EXTINGUISHED.

Working in a radio factory brought home the need to apply that rule to
everyday objects, as it wasn't unknown for some joker to wire up a door
handle or a metal swivel chair to a high voltage supply.  The other
useful habit was to freeze if anyone threw anything towards you and
shouted "Catch!" - the object that bounced off you was just as likely to
be a charged high voltage electrolytic capacitor.

Such friends one needs few of!
At $WORK, the more common thing was to shed all jewelry as a wedding band
across a 100A supply will turn neatly cauterize the severed finger!
Of course, spouses tend to have raised eyebrows when you return home
without your wedding band in its rightful place (or, worse:  with a
flesh-colored bandage wrapped around it!)
[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!]