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The city's shocking sidewalks strike again! An Upper West Side pup was electrocuted Thursday during a late night walk on 72nd and Amsterdam. This has happened too many times over the past few years, more recently to a NY Post reporter's dog in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, who died from the shock.
A few years ago when Jodie Lane died, and her two dogs were injured from a similar shock, Con Ed reported they had been getting "about 100 complaints about people or dogs receiving electric shocks from street equipment, but the reports have increased enormously in the two weeks since [Jodie Lane's] accident."
Buddy, the latest canine victim, was standing on the electrical plate when he received the shock and the DOT reported it as being "a control box for the traffic light...the insulation of one of the wires had come loose." Luckily Buddy is okay, but "his owner says he was still clearly uncomfortable walking by that spot." Con Ed fixed this particular electrical plate, even though it was part of the DOT's infrastructure.
Incidents like this are more common in the winter, when salt makes water on the ground conduct more electricity. So another friendly reminder: buy your pooch some boots! We suggest some rubber-soled ones, like these.
Robot dog in Times Square via oldhamedia's flickr.
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If there's ever a competition for the title of America's Most Loathsome Electric Company, it's a pretty safe bet who one of the frontrunners will be.
I am starting to wonder why they don't make these manhole/access covers out of some sort of non-conductive material. Oh wait, that would make too much sense and you probably couldn't have half naked guys in India make them for pennies on the dollar.
Sad but true Toby.
How is this Con Edison's fault? They do not control the street lights.
Also, you can't expect them to inspect every single wire all the time. It's winter and such corrosion happens fast.
People make such ignorant comments at Con Edison whenever they can.
As for the manhole covers, serious question, what material would not conduct electricity and be strong enough to support the weight of cars and people?
Nova - this a blog. If you know anything about anything, stay clear. Please. This is a forum for ignorant rants about how other people should solve the world's problems.
*How is this Con Edison's fault? They do not control the street lights.*
You're right, but they maintain the electricity to the street lights, making it their fault.
Lets see, a few dead dogs and one dead human in the last several years from street shocks.
There's like 8.2 million people living inside the city lines and how many pets?
I think ConEd is getting a little more flack than it deserves.
No, it doesn't.
Blame the weather, actually. It's called winter you fuckin moron.
...until it's your dead human or your dead dog.
I guess some people here work as PR for coned...
It is amazing that the city has not installed the Electrified Cover Safeguard technology, that I was just reading about on line. According to their website at www.ManholeSafety.com, whenever a manhole or street lamp becomes electrified, the system sounds an on-site warning consisting of a beeping sound and flashing lights, while at the same time contacting the city so that the danger can be quickly rectified. Three years ago, I had a mild shock in the winter while changing my tire. Probably the salt used to melt the ice compounded the problem. The older our city gets, the more dangerous the streets will get. I feel that we must have this warning system installed on the entire grid.