Everyone knows that city streets can be dangerous. The risk of being struck by a falling object from a high-rise building or becoming a mugging victim are constant threats.
But not every threat to life and limb is easily identified. A Seattle dog owner by the name of Lisa McKibbin learned this the hard way. On Thanksgiving Day, 2010, she was out walking her dog Sam when he suddenly
began to screech and wail, his body convulsing heavily. He began to jump around as if he had stepped on something sharp. I had no idea what was happening to him! I began to panic… When I reached for his paw, thinking he had some object stuck in it, Sam fell to the ground near a metal plate and light pole. He was still convulsing as if having a seizure, and then he bit my thumb.
Sam died soon afterward, of electrocution. He had been a victim of “contact voltage”— current radiating throughout a city’s electric grid that converts everyday objects such as light poles and metal plates in the street to instruments of death.
Lisa’ story is one of many heart-wrenching tales shared at StreetZaps, a website designed to educate city dwellers about this little-known danger and to warn pet owners in particular. The site’s creator Blair Sorrel has conferred with Con Edison's Stray Voltage and Public Affairs Units here in New York.
On the site she notes that “each day New Yorkers walk over a network of 94,000 miles of electrical cable,” but the Big Apple is not an isolated example. Every major city and plenty of minor ones have grid systems that transfer energy. Each is a recipe for disaster for those unaware of the hazards.
One hazard highlighted on the site is the climate-sensitive nature of grid-related shocks and electrocutions. While these can happen any time of year, “the most hazardous time is in the winter after snow falls and in the summer after heavy rains. The winter incidents are likely when melted snow mixed with salt-based deicers form a saline solution and conduction path from defective or tampered cables and equipment, usually several days after the snowfall. Summer events usually happen when water builds up or ponds around and infiltrates damaged or defective equipment.”
Among the specific hazards to watch out for when out walking your pooch are:
- manhole covers;
- metal grates;
- light poles;
- entrances to ATM machines.
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