Another winner of the Darwin award... - 03/31/04 05:41 PM
Just read this at work. Hope you guys do too.
Quote
Tripping the light fantastic
Nov. 7th, 2003, Texas, USA
Houston Police and paramedics responded to an emergency report - a 30-year-old male was ‘down’ in the car park of a local cinema. Paramedics arrived and began administering CPR, but were unable to revive him.
“It was at this point we started to piece together his story from witnesses” a police source commented. “The man’s truck would not start, because his battery needed a jump-start. What could he do? He noticed he was conveniently parked next to a streetlight.
“With considerable ingenuity, the driver removed the service access panel from the bottom of the light pole, exposing the electrical wiring. He proceeded to pull the negative and positive wires from the pole, and removed the screw cap from the connection” he commented.
“He then connected his battery jumper cables to each of the wires, and picked up the now-live “business end” of the jumper cables to connect them to his truck battery. He didn’t even have time to wonder if the sequence was supposed to begin with black-to-negative or red-to-positive. The power traveled from one hand to the other via the shortest route - across his own chest. Witnesses say he was illuminated like a Christmas tree and the effect killed him instantly.
“That’s what happens when you try to jump start a 12-volt truck system with 480 volts of electricity.”
One of the emergency professionals on scene has the last word: “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you ain’t seen nothing!”
From FIRE & RESCUE magazine, January, 2004
Nov. 7th, 2003, Texas, USA
Houston Police and paramedics responded to an emergency report - a 30-year-old male was ‘down’ in the car park of a local cinema. Paramedics arrived and began administering CPR, but were unable to revive him.
“It was at this point we started to piece together his story from witnesses” a police source commented. “The man’s truck would not start, because his battery needed a jump-start. What could he do? He noticed he was conveniently parked next to a streetlight.
“With considerable ingenuity, the driver removed the service access panel from the bottom of the light pole, exposing the electrical wiring. He proceeded to pull the negative and positive wires from the pole, and removed the screw cap from the connection” he commented.
“He then connected his battery jumper cables to each of the wires, and picked up the now-live “business end” of the jumper cables to connect them to his truck battery. He didn’t even have time to wonder if the sequence was supposed to begin with black-to-negative or red-to-positive. The power traveled from one hand to the other via the shortest route - across his own chest. Witnesses say he was illuminated like a Christmas tree and the effect killed him instantly.
“That’s what happens when you try to jump start a 12-volt truck system with 480 volts of electricity.”
One of the emergency professionals on scene has the last word: “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you ain’t seen nothing!”
From FIRE & RESCUE magazine, January, 2004
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