ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion What's Your Story, Were You Ever Shocked?

N-N-N-N-never. yup, 480 volt one phase in each hand was the worst, tuck, rolled and ducked out of the way of several arc blasts.

A friend of mine was working in a lighting contactor panel last week though, someone turned a switch on and he leaned against a live 277 volt conductor. The crush of his muscle broke the socket of his upper arm (Nope, he ain't that big) as well as destroyed some tendons, he'll be out a while.

For trained professionals only—stay away form a 60Hz poke on one’s sweaty forehead with contact points centered about an inch apart. It gives the lovely sensation of blue-white arcs above the eyelids, a plethora of brain spasms, a bizarre Martian taste in the mouth, and—around two seconds later—an intense headache.

The fun is right up there with the morning-after stool visit following a big bowl of Improved Tezpur Thermonuclear Orgasm Chili.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 08-25-2002).]

While trying to find where a lighting circuit failed, stuck my head up the drop cielig grid. some one left the wirenuts off a 277V circuit with wires hanging outside box. Found myself on floor with smell of burnt hair

Joe,

My first shock was when I was a kid. I put my habd across the plug while I was trying to unplug it. The worst shock I had was when a plumber cut a wire in the wall. I "thought" the circuit was DEAD. But it wasn't and I reached inside the wall to find what was left of my wire. Well I grabbed the neut in 1 hand and the phase in the other and I was stuck. The lights in the basement were going dim. My boss thought that there was a brown out. NOPE It was just my nose lighting up. I got off it after what seemed like an hour. I was OK but I was shoock up. The funniest shock I ever got was when I was installing alarm wire. We worked with 110 vdc and I didn't realize it at the time. (1975 I think.) well I was above a grid ceiling and as I was lowering myself down through the ceiling the phase wire caught my lip. It threw my head back against the grid ceiling. Which then proceeded to spring my head back toward the wire. Back and forth I went for about 4 times. I looked like a bell clapper inside a church bell. I finally got away but my lip swelled up real large.

Caper

Never use the bottom of a control enclosure as a shelf.
1987, before major "electrical Safety" awareness, I was troubleshooting the 4-20 milliamp control signal for an SCR-controlled 480 volt oil heater. No gloves. Reached for the meter and my hand came across 2 fuse clips at 480 volts. Never felt anything like it before. Never want to again. My hand looked like it had popcorn growing out of it where the contact took place.
Funny thing about accidents is, during the incident, you suddenly realize all at once what you did wrong.

Hi Guys;
I got a nasty scare (but a relatively minor shock) a number of years ago while I was a student in college. I was helping the theater stage manager replace several bad autotransformer dimmers in a large stage lighting switchboard. We had turned off the power to the entire board at the MDP feeder breaker in the basement of the building, then taped a warning sign over the breaker (no way to LOTO, unfortunately)and locked the door to the room behind us. While I was virtually inside the switchboard from my waist up, the stage manager noticed several pilot lamps light up on the board, indicating that the power had been turned back on. He warned me at about the same time a heard a dimmer start humming about two inches from my left ear. As I backed out of the board, I brushed against another dimmer which shot me backwards to the wall behind the switchboard. Quite discouraged by this, the SM and I went down to the switchgear room, found the breaker had been closed, and the warning note crumpled on the floor. We turned the breaker off again, then hid in a corner of the room where we could observe the MDP. A few minutes later, a secretary entered the room and attempted to close the breaker again, whereupon we stopped and detained her until the campus police arrived.

It turns out that a wiring fault existed which led to the air conditioner (20 a., 220v.) in her office being connected to the feeder breaker for the stage lighting service (300a., 120-208v. 3ph. ). Four things happened immediately thereafter; 1) The secretary was instantly fired, 2)The lock to the switchgear room was changed, 3) The MDP was modified so that the breaker could be locked out, and 4) the air conditioner circuit was reconnected to a different power source.

Yes, we should have had the college electric department do the work, but they refused because they "had never worked on that kind of thing before".

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-26-2002).]

When I was 5 years old I went to work with my Dad who happened to be an electrician. Since watching him install receptacles I wanted to do that too. When I got home I went to my moms bathroom and got 2 of those nail files. You know, those good conductive metal ones. Well if you jab one in the hot side and one in the neutral side at the same time you get knocked on your but pretty good. The funny thing about it was that my mom watched me the hole time without saying one word about it.
Wirewiz

The biggest bang I got was when I was about 14 years old and went hunting on a rainy day.
Got the urge to take a leak next to a barb wire fence.
It took 10 minutes before I was able to walk.

That's the stuff family legends are made of!
My brother still brings it up at family reunions. ;(

owwww [i/]

despite this, you've gone on to [i]have a family??

sparky:

I think the family was started because the milk from this cow was "energized"

http://www.kencove.com/stafix/how.gif

Does Article 547 cover this product?