Roger Lane lost his daughter Jodie seven years ago, but instead of taking his family's $6.2 million settlement with Con Ed and continuing on with his life in Texas, he and his family became public safety crusaders whose efforts have made a real difference in the lives of New Yorkers. Lane died of heart disease last month, and New York lost a true friend. more ›

These maps are sort of terrifying, no? The Jodie S. Lane Public Safety Foundation, named for the woman who was electrocuted to death in the East Village five years ago, has created a website that tracks and logs all incidents of stray voltage found by Con ED since January 2004. CityRoom reports that "It maps the location of more than 31,900 objects, like fences, manholes and sidewalks, that have been electrified by stray voltage and 930 shocks of people or pets that have been recorded during that period." more ›

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. more ›

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 295 accounts of people being shocked last year, versus 378 the prior year. That's a 22% reduction. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

“Sometimes when you walk on them, they shake,” said Erica Busby, 41, who was on her lunch break on York Avenue on the East Side. more ›

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 with orange cones on top of the cars - with the following sign:

A stray voltage hazard was discovered here. The coned/taped off area contains an extremely dangerous electrified object or structure. more ›

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. more ›

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 Ed said there was smoke coming from the plate. City Councilman John Liu told reporters on the scene, "Stray voltage is not something that stays constant. Stray voltage is unpredictable, it's erratic..it just pops up. This is testimony that we received two years ago," (probably during the Jodie Lane electrical shock death investigation). Liu is now convening a special meeting this morning at 10AM to discuss the issue with Con Ed and the Department of Transportation. The boy is recovering at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and area residents are trying to avoid walking on metal plates. more ›

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 said, "One of the things about Con Ed, which is a wonderful company and they have good billing facilities, if there had been, they would have billed us." Oh, snap! Naturally, Danny Kapilian, whose dog died earlier this week, is looking for a lawyer and is angry at Con Ed:

"I never cease to be amazed when it comes to the way that government and bureaucracies fail to communicate properly, the end result of which puts the public at risk. It doesn't ease my pain — my dog has still died. But I appreciate that this has come to light."

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 people. Two teenaged girls were shocked, but didn't say anything, and as WABC 7 reported, "That was a mistake. Later, two more people walked on the plate, and were shocked seriously enough that they couldn't move, had muscle spasms and had to be taken to the hospital." The second two people included a young model whose mother thought she was "being silly" when she fell to the ground. Lesson 1: Call 311 if there's an electrified service box. Lesson 2: Believe your friends and family when they say they've been shocked. Con Ed said that they were replacing the wires on Sunday. You can also call Con Ed directly with problems - 1-800-76-CON-ED. more ›

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 track the findings. The detectors will be used to do "five-day, 24 hour sweeps" of neighborhoods after snowstorms. Con Ed admits that these devices are extremely sensitive, saying that neon signs can set them off. more ›

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 at least during the 2003 Blackout, everyone else was affected, whereas no one knew what he was going through yesterday. Gothamist liked how people in the neighborhood went to one business that still had power to charge their cellphones. Gotta stay connected! more ›

After Lane's death, the NY Times found that many New Yorkers knew there were electrocuted areas because their dogs would act scared; the above photo is from the January 2003 Times story. And Lane's family and Con Ed reached a settlement earlier this year, which included the formation of a task force to make sure the city is safe. more ›

The City on winter weather safety tips. More information about Jodie Lane's death and efforts to improve public safety at the Jodie Lane Project. more ›

For more information about the effort to make citizens aware of hot zones, go to the Jodie Lane Project. more ›

Wallenberg, a Williamsburg resident, said that the doctor at Beth Israel believed that a lot of the burn would scar permanently. She is considering legal action against Con Ed, which is now partially burnt onto her back. Wallenberg, a receptionist and DJ, is described by the Post as a 26 year old skateboarder. Note to the Post from Gothamist: no describing people as skateboarders unless they are Tony Hawk, et al. more ›