Signs Point to Metal Plate in East Village Electrocution
By RICHARD LEZIN JONES and OREN YANIV
Published: January 18, 2004
Consolidated Edison officials said yesterday that they had found exposed wiring and an apparent short circuit beneath a metal plate on an East Village street where the authorities said a woman was electrocuted on Friday while walking her dogs.
A repair crew removed the plate on 11th Street near First Avenue on Friday evening, shortly after the death of the woman, Jodie S. Lane, 30, and discovered that insulation had been worn away from a wire, said a Con Ed spokesman, Chris Olert.
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"We don't know why the insulation came off," said Mr. Olert, who added that Con Ed workers repaired the wiring and that the utility was conducting an investigation into the accident, which he called a "tragic and highly unusual incident."
Although the authorities said that it appeared Ms. Lane had been electrocuted, the medical examiner's office said that a formal determination of what caused her death could not be made until after an autopsy was conducted today.
Electrical currents carried though plates on streets and sidewalks by short circuits have proved troublesome before.
In 1999, a carriage horse was electrocuted when it stepped on a Con Ed service box cover on East 59th Street near Park Avenue.
In that case, the utility found, an electrical current traveled through the cover because of a short circuit caused by the erosion of insulation protecting power lines. Such insulation can be worn away by wet weather and rock salt used to clear streets of snow and ice.
Mr. Olert said that it was too early to tell whether such factors had played a role in Ms. Lane's death.
The authorities said that Ms. Lane was walking her two dogs shortly before 6:30 p.m. Friday when the animals stepped on a concrete and metal plate, 2 feet by 4 feet, that was flush with the asphalt on 11th Street.
Witnesses said that one of the dogs touched the plate and reacted violently, howling and even biting the nose of Ms. Lane's other dog.
Apparently confused about what was happening, Ms. Lane called on passers-by to help.
"I heard, like, dogs screaming," said Ming Chan, 30, a copywriter who was walking on 11th Street. "She was crying, panicked and was very concerned about her other dog because he was lying on the pavement spitting blood."
For several minutes, Ms. Chan said, Ms. Lane struggled with the dogs.
"From her reaction, I could tell she didn't know what was going on," Ms. Chan said.
At one point, Ms. Chan said, Ms. Lane bent over to check on the dogs. "She just stepped in the snow, and I think one dog got electrocuted again, and it went through her," Ms. Chan said. "When I turned my head, she was down and didn't move."
Witnesses said that Ms. Lane lay on the plate in a heap, her limbs tangled.
"She didn't move," Ms. Chan said. "She didn't struggle."
About 20 people were drawn by Ms. Lane's cries for help, and they did what they could.
"A few people came to assist her, and they were getting shocked," said Eric Miranda, 35, a songwriter.
Moments earlier, Mr. Miranda said, he and Ms. Lane had commiserated about their misbehaving dogs.
"I may have been the last one to talk with her," he said.
When the police arrived, they instructed others to stay away from the plate until paramedics arrived. Ms. Lane was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Medical Center.
The dogs suffered minor injuries. One dog, who according to veterinary records is a mixed breed named Reilly, suffered burns and lost toenails on her back paws, and the other dog, Meeko, was treated for a bite to the nose, said Dr. Sara Newman, who attended to the animals after they were brought by a witness to St. Marks Veterinary Hospital, not far from the scene.
"They were mostly shaken up," Dr. Newman said. "They just saw what happened to their mother and were terrified."
Ms. Lane, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Columbia University Teachers College, was remembered yesterday as an exceptional student who liked music and dancing and whose world centered on her longtime boyfriend, Alex Wilbourne, and their dogs.
"Jodie was passionate, dedicated and devoted to helping children with special needs," her family said in a statement last night.
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Ms. Lane was one of eight students in her doctoral class and had been selected from a field of more than 200 applicants, said Dr. Barry A. Farber, her faculty mentor.
"She was the best of the best, as they say," Dr. Farber said.
Dr. Farber said that Ms. Lane was scheduled to finish an internship in June at University Hospital in Newark and begin work on her doctoral thesis, which was to explore obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Ms. Lane had already begun working on a children's book about coping with the disorder.
"She was pretty special — talented clinically and really well liked," Dr. Farber said. "And that's not one of those generic post-mortem statements. She was truly special."
Oren Yaniv contributed reporting for this article.
