Dog walking New Yorkers Fear Electrocution???

[jfulcer]

"I feel like I am being obsessive compulsive, but I don't walk on grates any more, I don't walk on the electrical covers, I totally avoid them," said dog owner Joanna Murphy, who has walked her German Shepherd "Emmy" in the East Village for the past decade.

Murphy was "horrified," said she, when she heard the news that 30-year-old Jodie Lane, a doctoral student, had been killed January 16 when she and her two dogs stepped on a metal plate electrified by a faulty underground cable.

Witnesses reported watching Lane try to calm her dogs, who went berserk after being electrocuted before the electrical current reached her. The dogs survived

But what gets me is this:

New York's streets have 260,000 of the same manhole covers, grates and service box covers that killed Lane -- part of energy supplier Con Edison's 90,000 miles of underground cable in New York and nearby Westchester County.

The company inspected all of its manhole and service box covers following Lane's death and found "no stray voltage at 99.95 percent of the equipment," according to Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert.

No voltage at 99.5% of the boxes? That means that <b>1300 manhole covers were electrified!!!!</b>

That's scary!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/04/28/dog.walking.reut/index.html

 

[Pooh67_68]

 

[outstandinfarmer]

They thought they could trick you by putting it in percentage, boy were they wrong!!!!

 

[amid chaos]

Same problem in Boston.

NStar Says Manhole Inspections Complete
Three Dogs Electrocuted Over Past Four Years

POSTED: 7:57 am EDT April 16, 2004

BOSTON -- The utility company NStar announced Thursday it has completed a citywide inspection of its manholes and equipment and confirmed the "sound state" of its electric system after dog owners questioned the safety of manholes where their pets were shocked or electrocuted.

NStar filed a report Thursday with the Department of Telecommunications and Energy to report it found "no systematic problem with the underground electric system," and to identify safety concerns related to city streetlights, the company said.

At least three dogs have been electrocuted over the past four years in Boston while walking over grates and manhole covers.

NStar checked more than 18,000 of its manholes in the city and inspectors tested tens of thousands of lampposts, mailboxes, fire hydrants, traffic lights and other structures located near manholes.

NStar found and corrected seven safety issues "involving or possibly involving NStar equipment" and 17 issues on equipment owned by the city or others.

The company will also inspect all 35,000 manholes in the 81 eastern Massachusetts communities within its service area, and has improved its response to reports of possible stray voltage, the company announced.

After the electrified metal cover of a utility box killed a woman in New York, the utility company Consolidated Edison tested about 260,000 underground structures, manholes, metal plates and service boxes and found less than 1 percent of them had stray voltage.

 

[adamak]

I'm terrified of that, each time I walk my dog now, esp during rainy days. It's pretty scary, as a woman was already killed, several dogs were injured in the past year. Local news had been covering the story, but doesn't seem like things were fixed.

 

[sorcerormickey]

Less than 1% is still way too much. SCARY!!!