Shocking investigation on stray electricity

(CBS News) 

JACKSONVILLE - Dave Kalokitis is a kind of electric detective. His Power Survey Company uses a high tech truck to find contact voltage hazards. Kalokitis is helping CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson see if there are any here in Jacksonville, Fla. - a city he's never tested before.

"This is an electric field sensor which is a scientific instrument," Kalokitis says. "That's a strong signal, that's something we need to check out."

A volt meter confirms something's wrong. "I'm looking at 119 volts here. That's the same voltage you'll find in a wall socket in your house."

A simple touch with grounded metal confirms the risk. Contact voltage can be hidden in plain sight -- in any city. Old frayed wires, or wires that are improperly installed, touch against metal and electrify it. The problem is only getting worse due to the nation's decaying infrastructure.

WATCH: Hidden danger of contact voltage

Luckily, most people who touch the metal don't make good enough contact to get seriously hurt. But if you're barefoot -- or wet -- the hazard can be deadly.

It happened to 14-year-old Deanna Green in Baltimore in 2006. Her father Anthony says the ground was wet -- when Deanna touched a park fence at softball practice. Nobody knew it - but the fence was charged by frayed lighting wires buried underneath. 227 volts killed her instantly.

"Never in a thousand years would you think that while you were there, and while your child was standing in front of you - you would lose her in such a manner," says Deanna's mother Nancy. "It's devastating."

Our Jacksonville survey found a dozen hazards in public places where kids play and anyone could come in contact. The 127 volts on one light pole was enough to light a bulb - without a socket.

"We'll put some safety cones around it, some safety tape," says Kalokitis. "Then, we can alert the utility and they can come take a look at it.

Nobody tracks contact voltage injuries nationwide. There are media reports of 19 deaths in 13 states since the early 1990's.

In New York City in 2004, grad student Jodie Lane was electrocuted while walking her dogs She stepped on a slush-covered utility box with bad wiring.

CBS News checked with the 25 biggest cities and found only a few actively searched for contact voltage, including New York, Seattle, San Antonio and Boston.

Boston affiliate WBZ's stray voltage report

Mike Hyland, of the American Public Power Association, says problems are rare.

"Safety trumps all," Hyland says. "So if there's a situation out there that's unsafe, that could affect the employees or the public - utilities usually immediately take care of it.

After being notified by CBS News, the Jacksonville Electric Authority said it inspected all the poles downtown and "repaired 27." They've also decided to "begin annual inspections," which would include a metal pole that measured 126 volts -- within view of the utility's headquarters.

[magicpsn]

I too was amazed when my dog was shocked by a light-pole at a park when he went up to sniff it...boy did he yelp!!!

I returned with a voltmeter and confirmed that it had 120 to ground. I called it into our local police non-emergency number because I didn't know if the poles were maintained by the city or PG&E (our electric company). About an hour later the electric company was there taking care of the problem!

[Talsimam]

Fascinating story. An EMF tester is an invaluable device for testing the air around powerlines. It reads the Electomagnetic Field giving indications of the strength of electiricity being emmited by transmission lines. It is handy for checking EM fields in the house too. Some standards have established that readings above a 3 are harmfull, and is an idication of faulty circuits, or unbalanced loads.

The title of stray electricity caught my attention in the cotext that it only takes millivolts to fixate nitrogen.
Shared manipulation exists, for the means of extra-poll-ation, tele-porting and profits, for the sub atomic end games. Conversions from gaseous to liquid, and conversely to solids in electromagnetic grids. Mineral conversions through gasses wreaks havoc to the environment and subsequently to all living things. "Energy cannot be created, it only can be converted from one form to another. Radiation has its generic specific gravity and when not contained has a half life that dissipates and changes the composition of the anomolie. These processes generate heat in the atmosphere by converting nitrogen into soluable forms. The flip side is excessive cooling, the next ice age, is soon to follow!

[dairywoman5]

And don't forget about the thousands of dairy cattle that die each year from stray voltage, and the dairy farmers that are put out of business because of it. I guess it takes having a national news story to get the power company to fix the problem immediately.

[does.tv]

Just as a question to those grousing about the lack of utility companies doing stuff, when was the last time you had a certified electrician out to check your all the wiring in your home? Did you have it done prior to you purchasing your home? You might be surprised what you'd find.... Remember you're liable for people getting killed in your home.

How many people are electrocuted in their homes each year verses out in public?

[ahrats]

Electric Utility Companies have very lax about maintance, PROFITS ahead of maintainance, now that the cat is out of the bag I see large lawsuits, wrongful death lawsuits, in their future.

[bugwhips]

Utilities always ask for more for maintenance all the time but penny pinching PUC and people like you think it's all about greed and deny them the money.

[ProgressiveRepublican]

Safety for commoners has never been a concern for conservatives because of it's strong resemblance to progress which gets in the way of profits. Greed Over Principle breeds a Greedy Oligarchic Plutonomy. That's the whole point.

[bugwhips]

Utilities always ask for more for maintenance all the time but penny pinching PUC and people like you think it's all about greed and deny them the money.

[Overruled1]

In San Francisco, the street cars were causing residents alarm.
It seems that stray voltages were making their way to everything plugged in and blowing them up.

[Overruled1]

I feel sorry for any dogs needing to release some pressure!

[JohnG1976]

There was a case this past year in Seattle where a dog was electrocuted when it stepped on an electric plate next to a lamp post.

[littleredtop]

Somehow, the greed factor has to be removed from the utilities industry. Wherever the utility is not owned by a municipality you find you find excessive greed dominating the decision making process. Utilities are generally privately owned by individuals and syndicates or publicly held which may even be worse. To top it off, unbeknownst to most people, their water utilities may be even owned by foreign corporations. Better than 60% of the public water utilities in the Northeast are owned by foreign corporations. The utilities industry is taking its cue from the oil companies and beginning the further rape of America. Believe me when I say that repairs and upgrades are not a part of their strategies and are often completely overlooked in their business plans. This is what happens when critical industry goes unregulated.