Death from the Breaker Box

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Death from the Breaker Box
From: "Ross Overstreet" <ross-o-at-mindspring-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 16:03:25 -0600
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Hey,
I recently found out that a 24 year old kid from my hometown died in an
electrical accident.  A bunch of people were down at the Tombigbee river in
South Alabama hanging out, drinking beer, and watching football at some camp
houses.  One of the camp houses had been disconnected by Alabama Power.
Bystanders said that Heath Rotch had previous experience in tapping into a
neighboring panel and running power over to his camp house.  Something went
terribly wrong this time and Heath died.

We have to remember that the arcs off the top or the primary aren't the only
dangerous parts of our systems.  Since I take my coil on the road, I'm
constantly working in other peoples breaker boxes...

This story really touched close to home since I made a stupid mistake last
month.  I was disconnecting my coil from someone's box when I got tired of
trying to keep the cover flap from falling down.  In a great move of
stupidity I thought that the best way to keep it from falling was to support
it with the top of my head!!!  Well, we can all see where this is going.  I
touched the side of the screwdriver, or something, and made a nice path from
my hand to the top of my head.  Thankfully, my "crew cut" was a week or two
old and the short hair increased my resistance a little.

Be careful,
Ross Overstreet
Huntington Beach, CA