City Light: No further ‘contact voltage’ found in High Point

December 14, 2010 at 9:50 pm | In Safety, Utilities, West Seattle news | 5 Comments

Seattle City Light just sent a late-night news release with an update on streetlight inspections following last week’s discovery of “contact voltage” by a light in High Point (reported by HP’s Wendy Hughes-Jelen after her dog and another one behaved oddly around it, and following the Thanksgiving contact-voltage electrocution of a dog): 270 more poles were checked in High Point and Greenbridge (a similar development in White Center), and no further cases of contact voltage turned up, according to the news release. But three cases were found in neighborhoods east of downtown. SCL says it’s figuring out whether it can speed up the citywide inspections that were to be done by May.

5 Comments

  1. Okay, there’s no active voltage until another fixture shorts or a power line breaks or? Will they test for conductivity to earth ground or is that too much work?

    Comment by Dale R — 10:45 pm December 14, 2010 #

  2. Shocking!

    Comment by Jiggers — 1:45 pm December 15, 2010 #

  3. Jiggers: Literally! LOL.

    Comment by Scar — 1:57 pm December 15, 2010 #

  4. The pole we found did not shock us when we touched it, but the dog sniffing at the base clearly got a shock. I don’t know if it really means poles or if it could be the bolts at the bottom, which is what I think she touched.

    Comment by Wendy Hughes-Jelen — 3:30 pm December 15, 2010 #

  5. (ref: Seattle Times article) The poles do not “carry” voltage but if they aren’t grounded properly, they can carry current to ground through a person, dog, or other conductor in contact with ground. Since it’s clear where this is going, I should just give up and get non-conductive rubber OSHA galoshes for my dogs. Do they make them for Pugs.

    Comment by Dale R — 3:42 pm December 16, 2010 #

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