Dspark qoutes"Could you please suggest for me a path that the current may have followed and why proper bonding did not prevent this (even when the neutral was disconnected); or more to the point, how bonding created a shock hazard that wouldn't have existed had the water pipes and gas lines not been bonded?"

As we all know, electric current will follow any given path to ground.

Differences in potential is the key word here I beleive.
If the water line is metal on the inside of the house, PVC going into the ground then it is "isolated" from ground. Bond the water line to the electrical system and now it is bonded. With a baked out or non existent ground rod and a broken/disconnected neutral you have isolated your water line once again from grnd. Although it is isolated from grnd it is also isolated from the source. The path would be someone that touches the water line or its connected fixtures and is touching a ground. Dspark you used the example of an upstairs bath. I'll give you that one because the person himself would more or less be as a bird on a wire. But what if that person was downstairs on a concrete floor, barefooted, and touches that line? Or if that person is standing outside barefooted and reaches for the spicket(which is bonded)? There are many instances that a person can be grounded. The scenario I am using has made the waterline just as energized as any ungrounded conductor!

As I said before I do agree that it should be bonded. But bonded or unbonded a hazard could exist either way. Which would be the most likely to occur? I haven't a clue. It is one of those things that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

One last question for all you sparkys out there.
When you arrive on a job and you open the breaker box how do you go about it?

Do you just reach and grab and open it up?
Or do you sweep the back of your hand across it?

My dic* has been knocked in the dirt a couple times when I just reached and grabbed. [Linked Image]
What made that box hot? Ahhh, a bad neutral conn. and a non existent grd rod or a baked out grd rod!