Yesterday afternoon, a contractor came into contact with a live cable at the Astoria substation and suffered a fatal heart attack. John Rodriguez worked for CKR Construction, not Con Ed, and had been installing a new cable. The NY Times reported on Con Ed's statement, "A contractor was excavating and installing grounding cable in the substation...It appears he came into contact with an energized cable....We are investigating the circumstances of the incident, and we are......

New Yorkers can walk the streets--and their pets--with renewed confidence this winter. Con Ed is reporting that one's chance of electrocution via stray voltage is down more than 20%, based upon their most recent survey. Of course, being electrocuted while walking around is a very remote possibility, although it does happen, especially in winter, when salt water and slushy water become simultaneously a corrosive agent and an effective conductor of electricity. The utility recorded only......

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......

A NY Post reporter is the latest to cover a dog being killed by a Con Ed shock. This time the dog, Mushy, was her own. My dog, Mushy, a 100-pound Italian mastiff, died yesterday after an encounter with an electrified light pole - and I'm confronted with official bumbling and denials over what happened. It was dark and damp at around 6:30 a.m., when I was walking Mushy in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.......

We doubt they'll be paying livery cab drivers to park over dangerous-looking grates until they can be checked, but Con Edison is promising to check all 18,000 of its sidewalk grates after a woman plunged through one Thursday morning, landing close to a potentially lethal source of electricity. She was eventually rescued by two firefighters. The regional electric utility is still in the process of identifying electrical "hot spots" that have killed at least one......

Have you wondered why a livery cab has been parked in the same spot for days? It may be that Con Ed is behind it! The Daily News explains that Con Ed has "come up with a bizarre way to protect the public from stray-voltage hot spots throughout the city - it's hiring livery cab drivers to guard them until crews can fix the problem." The drivers sit in their cars - and sometimes......

A Boston terrier died yesterday while walking on Rector Street, seemingly from an electrical shock. The dog, named Boston Bob, was being walked by his dog-walker when he stepped on a sidewalk near a manhole. The NY Times reports the 16 pound dog "suddenly lifted his paws, yelped in pain and went limp in the dog walker’s arms." And the dog walker told a witness that Bob was bleeding after the shock. Pet store owner......

Residents and politicians are up in arms over what seems like the latest stupidity from Con Ed: A 9 year old boy got an electrical shock while crossing the street at 127th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard yesterday afternoon. Con Ed did not find any stray voltage at the metal plate (you know, the ones that are on the road because there are potholes or massive digs below), though the original complaint called into Con......

Hold on a moment: Con Edison, our city's electricity utility, who had originally blamed the Department of Transportation for the the stray voltage that caused a dog to be fatally electrocuted on a Brooklyn sidewalk, now admits it was at fault. Con Ed's claim that the DoT removed a street lamp years ago without telling them didn't hold when it turned out the city did contact them about turning off the power line. Mayor Bloomberg......

With this kind of winter weather, it means one thing: Be careful of where you walk, because there may be reactions between snow-melting chemicals and various electrical devices. Everyone remembers East Village resident Jodie Lane, whose 2003 electrocution death by way of faulty, exposed wires as she was walking her dogs on East 11th Street made people realize how dangerous the snow can be. Yesterday, a metal plate on 42nd Street became electrified, shocking four......

Con Ed will be using mobile stray-voltage detectors costing $2.5 million to find any live currents, as part of its settlement with the family of Jodie Lane, the East Village resident who was electrocuted to death when she stepped on a Con Ed service box almost two years ago. The NY Post describes the detectors as being "stowed in plywood boxes mounted on trailers," which are then pulled by Con Ed workers' vehicles who will......

While Con Ed was happy to have hit a record number of megawatts on Tuesday without blackouts, yesterday's cooler weather actually did bring some brownouts Brooklyn and Queens. The NY Times spoke to Con Ed, which said 150 homes and businesses lost power. Con Ed can't quite explain what happened (burned wires). The article focuses on what happened in Fort Greene (Corona and Sunset Park were the other neighborhood affected), with one owner frustrated because......

With snow starting to cover the city, it might be a good time to keep in mind that Con Ed still has many areas to examine for potential "hot zones." The Post reports that two dogs were electrocuted from a puddle in Chelsea. Adam Fleischer was walking his Rottweiler and bichon frise when they started to yelp in front of 230 West 17th Street. Con Ed said that live wires caused the problem and offered......

Con Ed and the family of Jodie Lane, the Columbia graduate student whose electrocution death in the East Village stunned the city this past January, have reached a settlement: $6.2 million for Lane's wrongful death and $1 million for a scholarship to be formed in her name. Lane, a 30 year-old psychology student, had been walking her dogs on East 11th Street when she stepped onto an electrified area where exposed electrical wires had reacted......

Mayor Bloomberg signed a bill into law to make sure utilities repair infrastructure on sidewalks and in streets, after the accidental death of East Village resident Jodie Lane earlier this year. Electrical wires' rubber casing were corroded by the snow and salt, electrocuting Lane and her dogs. The news outraged and worried residents not just in the East Village but all over the city, especially as Con Ed found many "hot zones." Bloomberg said, "This......

In need of an original tattoo design? Park your ass or desired body part on a Con Ed manhole. That's not exactly what Liz Wallenberg did on Wednesday night, but that seemed to be the result. Skateboarding to a friend's show, she hit a bump in the road at 13th St. and 2nd Ave. After landing on the manhole, she felt the heat and then heard some sizzling, "I noticed it was kind of hot,......

After two dogs were shocked by a store's cellar doors on First Avenue and St. Mark's Place on Tuesday night, Con Ed is being questioned again. The incident, not too far from where East Village resident Jodie Lane was fatally electrocuted, raises questions about Con Ed's crackdown on fixing "hot spots" last month. The Utility Workers Union is saying the crackdown was a "con job," as accusations will stary to fly once again that shoddy......

Con Ed finally reveals where the dangerously electrified lampposts and metal plates are located in the city, and the Times puts together a useful and scary Excel chart of all the electrified lampposts and plates (XLS) in the city. Whether it was faulty work or just a terrible combination of events during this past cold and snowy winter, Jodie Lane's death from an electrocuted metal plate in the East Village spurred Con Ed to look......

East Village residents have identified areas that might cause electrical shocks to dogs in the wake of the Jodie Lane's death last week. They are the northwest corner of E. Seventh St. and Avenue A, right in front of 114 Ridge St. and the northeast corner of E. Seventh St. and Avenue B. Con Ed says there's no way to tell if the metal plate/grating is electrified. Residents feel the chemical compound used to melt......

Two days after the tragic electrocution death of Jodie Lane, the East Village is worrying about the safety of the streets. The Post reports a man was shocked by a lamppost at 12th Street and Avenue A, and the Daily News says it took Con Ed half a day to respond to an exposed and frayed electrical line on St. Mark's Place. Cautious residents are finding it difficult to know where hot plates (the metal......

Even though a formal investigation into the death of East Village resident, Jodie Lane, is in the works, most believe she was killed Friday night by electocution from exposed wires on East 11th Street. Her death, while walking her dogs, shocked not only the city and other dog walkers, but also fellow East Villagers who recognized her around the neighborhood. Most reports give detail to Lane's life: A New Yorker for the past ten years,......