Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash. Grays Harbor County sheriff’s Deputy Dave Pimentel (PIM’-en-tel) said Monday 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday and called a relative to pull his car from a ditch.
However, family members found Messenger electrocuted when they arrived. Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn’t see the live wire. The urine stream likely served as a conductor, allowing the electricity to reach his body. Pimentel says there will be an autopsy but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through Messenger’s body.
Doh!
Time to sue baby!
Didn’t they disprove this on MythBusters?
#2. Wanna give it a shot?
I remember the First time I DIDNT see the markings of an electric fence..
I dont want to THINK about 15,000+ volts, while pissing in a ditch.
#2 – I’ve already tweeted this to @donttrythis (Adam Savage). 🙂
#2 My dad called BS on that Mythbusters episode. He pissed on an Electric Fence when little and got shocked.
My little brother dared me to piss on an electrified fence when we were kids. I assure you, piss is a good conductor.
It sure burned up that guy’s lightning rod.
a mean friend of mine sent a rotten.com style pic of a guy who SURVIVED pissing on a downed powerline. Believe me he wished he was dead I still cringe thinking about it.
But it’s kind of a crapshoot as to weather or not it’ll kill you because the electricity travels though the lowerbody so if it’s quick there’s no vital organs there you can’t live without… w ell except that essential organ you don’t WANT to live without but can.
#3–McCullough==after seeing Mythbusters==sure.
Not because of the pissing on the third rail show but because after testing hotdogs they went ahead and stuck their finger and then whole hand into a vat of molten lead to prove the “xx effect” which was that a thin barrier of water vapor would form thus insulating their skin.
Electrocution doesn’t bother me that much, but the hand in molten lead still would be most uncomfortable.
I may be a Man of Science but my reptilian roots are still there.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03/02/1536218/Mythbusters-Peeing-On-3rd-Rail-Busted
If you can’t trust a tv show . . . . .
Mythbusters has it’s fair share of wrong conclusions. They are an entertainment show not a science show after all.
Not sure this guy is really deserving of a Darwin Award. The downed power line lying in a ditch could have been obscured by grass.
#13 “The downed power line lying in a ditch…”
How deep was the ditch 😉
Without having seen the Myth Busters episode, I call bull.
The urine would have grounded the arc to the soil, not to his body. Electricity will always take the easiest path. A broken stream of maybe three feet, and out through shoe soles against taking a direct route through the moist ground beneath the urine is no contest.
Of course, every time you say this is the way it should happen, some idiot does their best to prove you wrong.
Problem..
wet ground…
WET ditch…
you can be struck by lightning from 10 miles away in a pool of water..
Updated reporting, the guy apparently came into physical contact with the power line:
http://thedailyworld.com/articles/2010/03/02/local_news/doc4b8d762495bc8758424321.txt
Sorry guys, Mythbusters are safe for now. The guy came into physical contact with the power line:
http://thedailyworld.com/articles/2010/03/02/local_news/doc4b8d762495bc8758424321.txt
my bet is he may have pissed on the ground then had his foot in the same patch of wet ground.
DOH – now I see the last two posts.
I urinated on an electric fence as a kid a few times and never got stung but accidentally touching it proved it was on.
Never tried it. Had a student that claimed they got shocked by a fence however the stream may have been no more than inches.
Thoughts and prayers go out to the man’s family and friends.