Commuting - Shocking (literally)

Hello -
Just wanted to know what you all made of this, I was biking home from work yesterday evening (in the rain, up a hill) and came up to a red light. I wear toe clips so I stopped next to a traffic light pole, leaned out to rest on it, and BLAM! I got an electric shock. Not just a little whack but a fair shock that pulsed and caused me to cry out. I pulled away OK and rang the police, telling them to get down here now, and left, I felt (and feel) fine. Not sure what the problem was, whether the light had been wired up incorrectly or what, or today I wondered if a power line had fallen on it or something, I didn't check.
This bring to mind one or two questions:
1. WHAT THE HELL? (I could use worse language :) )
2. Was the fact that I was sitting on my bike (rubber tyres) without a foot on the ground save me from getting a worse shock?
3. Has anyone else heard of something like this happening?
Just thought I'd share.....

I have never had such a think happen to me. But I do know a fair amount of the phyiscs. For you to get shocked, there must be a lower resistance path through you to get to the ground. Meaning that the insulation in the tires must have been less than that at the bottom of the pole, or having your foot against it might have completely got around the insulation in the pole. I personally would have stayed on the scene though,

Yeah I know what you mean, I should have stayed, but I was off to my indoor soccer game soon after...... could have been waiting there all night though, am going to try following up this morning, to see what was done.

R

I've had minor electric shocks in the past from this sort of thing. I generally approach the light real slow and hope it turns green before I actually stop. If not,I just unclip at the traffic light. Most of the routes I ride don't have too many traffic lights so I don't think it's a major problem.

Oh yes. On the Newport Beach and Santa Ana River bike paths power lines from steet level power on up are sometimes bathed in a fine salty mist when a wind blows from the south west. Hearing the crackle and pop of shorts is common. Seeing blue/green sparks from bigger shorts is less common. Around there no one touches the poles when they are wet. One late night I spotted a 200,000 volt line steadily arcing over and called PG & E. Wow! A big truck and crew were on my doorstep in minutes. I gave them exact directions and half an hour later got most sincere thanks from the crew chief. That line fed the Disneyland area.

Of course there is the urban legend of a dog getting electrocuted when urinating on an open junction box at the base of a light pole.

Of course there is the urban legend of a dog getting electrocuted when urinating on an open junction box at the base of a light pole.
I don't know about urine-related electrocution, but the danger posed by utility structures as described in the original post is deadly, and no urban myth. In NYC almost two years ago (Jan 2004) a woman was killed by a 'hot' steel plate that covered an electrical splicing chamber beneath the street. She was walking her dogs at the time, who were also shocked, but didn't die. It was fairly common in previous years for carriage horses and other animals to be electrocuted as well.

Needless to say, a huge public outcry ensued after the woman's death, and the local power company (Con Ed) scrambled for months afterwards to check and secure the many thousands of junctions, poles, and other structures under their jurisdiction. Gotta love that road salt!

Happens in NYC a lot w/ metal plates that cover up big holes in the streets. Somehow, the plates get electrified and the only way people find out is by walking their pets across the plates and noticing they stop and start cooking. A woman was killed last year too by these same plates. BTW, if you think I'm kidding, I'm not. Con Ed was supposed to check all the big steel plates they laid on the streets covering buried power lines, but people still found a few that were came into contact w/ exposed power cables.

Hello -
Just wanted to know what you all made of this, I was biking home from work yesterday evening (in the rain, up a hill) and came up to a red light. I wear toe clips so I stopped next to a traffic light pole, leaned out to rest on it, and BLAM! I got an electric shock. ... This bring to mind one or two questions:
1. WHAT THE HELL? (I could use worse language :) )
2. Was the fact that I was sitting on my bike (rubber tyres) without a foot on the ground save me from getting a worse shock?

Quite possible, either because a wire has fallen somewhere, because there is a corroded insulator or connector (typically near the base of the post) or because there is a partly broken wire somewhere (especially with swinging signals). Although I have never witnessed it, I am aware of several signals in Montréal where some of the lights are dimmer, or where the red light is lit at 3/4 power while both yellow and green light are lit at 1/4 power, which means there some current leaking somewhere. In practical terms, those "partial leaks" and "partial short cuts" are worst than a complete break in insulation or a complete shortcut because then, the breaker would trip. A very unlikely possibility would be a short cut in the induction wire used to detect vehicles at the intersection.

Being on rubber tires may have helped a bit. But the fact some power went through your body and reached the ground, rather than simply going through the post means there was a serious grounding failure in the post. Had you had your foot on the ground, I'm not sure how much more current would have gone through your shoes, especially if you have rubber soles.

As for what to do after the incident, don't stay there, unless you need to protect others from the hazard. When such an electrical short happens through a car or truck, the people are protected because they are inside an enlosed metal cage. But since the bicycle is not a cage, you have no protection against stray currents. So unless you are positive that there are no other way you could get electrocuted
(ex.: magnetic field, current from a fallen wire, etc.), go to a safe place. However, I would follow with a call to the authorities (911 as well as the traffic light maintenance people), and I would tell them at which moment of the cycle the problem occured (ex.: red on this street, yellow on the other...) and the post you have been leaning unto, because the problem may be present only during one phase of the cycle.

2. Was the fact that I was sitting on my bike (rubber tyres) without a foot on the ground save me from getting a worse shock?

Possibly. Tires do conduct some electricity, because they have carbon black in them. High performance tires may use silicone compounds instead, I don't know. They'll obviously conduct more if they're wet, and if the water is salty, they'll conduct quite well.

There are at least two problems with that pole. First, obviously the pole is not grounded. I'm sure it should be, no electrical code is sloppy enough to allow a metal pole carrying wires to not be grounded. Second, the insulation on a hot wire has worn through and contacted part of the pole or something it connects to.

It's possible there's a more complex fault, involving the common getting broken and the current returning down the pole, but it still boils down to that pole not being properly grounded, and the electricity deciding that YOU are a better path to ground.

Any municipality or company had better respond IMMEDIATELY to this sort of thing; to have a report on record and then have someone get hurt/killed is such a liability that it's worth pretty much any expense to go and fix it NOW, even at 3 in the morning on xmas day.

Yup, the metal plates and light poles in NYCsometimes electrocute pets. Luckily, the current is low enough that the rubber from your shoes is enough to block it from giving you a small shock. But you see pets darting around because of the shock they receive.

Yup, the metal plates and light poles in NYCsometimes electrocute pets. Luckily, the current is low enough that the rubber from your shoes is enough to block it from giving you a small shock. But you see pets darting around because of the shock they receive.

you can tell which are the smart dogs, they walk one step behind their owner as they approach a plate. :p

Hello -
Just wanted to know what you all made of this, I was biking home from work yesterday evening (in the rain, up a hill) and came up to a red light. I wear toe clips so I stopped next to a traffic light pole, leaned out to rest on it, and BLAM! I got an electric shock. I know the OP is kinda old, but to throw my two cents in...

The rubber of his tires or his shoes would have been a sufficient insulator, if not for the rainy conditions. When everything is wet, most likely with a thin mud that has some salt content, that allows a separate path to ground that bypasses the rubber entirely. If your shoes are saturated by the rain, then you might as well be barefoot as far as the electricity is concerned.