As Woman is Electrocuted Power Company takes 2 1/2 minutes to Answer 911 call

[RamboLiberal]

Horrible story from my area that just haunts me to think about what this poor woman, her family and neighbors had to endure. I hope the power company has to pay a large settlement.

Carrie Goretzka, 39, died in June after she was trapped under a fallen power line outside her home as her mother-in-law and two young daughters helplessly watched.

Goretzka suffered burns over 85 percent of her body. She died three days later at a Pittsburgh hospital.

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The 911 dispatcher tried to reach someone at Allegheny power to shut the power off. On the tapes, the phone can be heard ringing and the dispatcher says, "That's nice. Allegheny Power's not answering." The ringing continues.

It took nearly two-and-a-half minutes and nearly 20 rings for someone at Allegheny Energy to answer, Miele reported.

"That power line should never have fallen, it landed on top of her. She was electrocuted. She was caused to suffer for a long time because the power company permitted a line to fall and then didn't come out quickly to rescue her because they didn't answer the telephone call," said Shanin Specter, the attorney representing the family in the lawsuit.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/20759332/detail.html

Newspaper story: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_641867.html

The fire company and other emergency people were there and could only helplessly watch as 911 dispatcher tried to get the damn power company to answer the phone.

[Ian David]

1. I wonder if police and fire departments should carry equipment to disable power lines.

I'd rather trust our socialized civil-servants to rescue someone than to depend on a for-profit electrical company.

[paulsby]

3. as a former firefighter

and current police officer, i will say - it's not that simple.

even the lineworkers, who are very well trained and equipped have to call in to central to get the power turned off from the station.

there is, as far as i know, no other simple way of doing it.

fwiw, electrical lineman is a very dangerous job

[vadawg]

5. i concur dude, no way would i want to be playing around with the high voltage

imagine the hours of training we would have to go through and the recerts every year or so. Better to let the experienced linemen deal with it, this occasion was unfortunate and i dont think the power company has a 911 system setup that gets you through immediately or everyone would swamp it every time their power went out.

[RamboLiberal]

9. But shouldn't the power company have a number for 911 dispatchers

and emergency personnel to call to disconnect power and have someone to answer the phone quickly?

[paulsby]

12. well...

SHOULD they? sure.

as to the question of the lawsuit, were they legally negligent for not answering the phone for 2 minutes? i would say NO.

it's not like cases like this instance are super common. in the VAST majority of electrocutions, it happens right away, iow the person is already dead and THEN the power is shorted out or the call is made to cut it out.

but in brief, obviously, it would have been a better outcome if they had answered the phone right away, and they SHOULD do so.

[RamboLiberal]

14. That's icing on the cake in the lawsuit

The main contention is the same line fell down 4-5 years previously and that a line like that should not come down without some contributing factor like weather or a a car hitting a pole, etc.

[paulsby]

15. THAT i would agree with

i didn't realize that part, only the part about the delay.

i would certainly agree that absent an external cause, lines should not come down

[Lasher]

6. They can open & close switches in aerial plant.

I've seen them do it. They use poles that look kinda like pruning sticks.

[Ian David]

7. That's kind of what I was thinking. Nothing fancy. Just disconnect the wire somehow. n/t

[paulsby]

13. yes

some of the guys are trained to that, and at some locations.

i was working a downed line the other day, and the guys (linemen) would not go near it until it was turned off from the central location.

[Lasher]

16. I don't doubt a lack of universiality.

But hey, you're a cop. Why don't you just shoot the wires in two? Surely you can shoot guns out of peoples' hands because I've seen it on TV. How much more difficult could it be to dust off a power line?

[pimpbot]

4. You can't disable high voltage lines, easily

First they'd have to find the closest disconnect switch. Then they'd have to figure out how to operate it. There are so many different types of disconnects you need an experienced lineman to really know for sure what to do. Then they'd have to figure out if that was the only feeder that supply electricity to the downed wires. Even if they did manage to find the correct disconnect, someone at the power company might see the outage, and try to reroute power, putting the rescue people in danger.

This sounds like a very unfortunate situation. It sounds like the power company should have a better procedure in place for 911 calls. I sure hope they dont make 911 call their general number and "push 2 for english, push 3 for emergencies" etc etc.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. As a former Rescue worker, NO

it is not that simple.

And yes, I did watch a victim under a live line. It took our SOCIALIZED power company the longest three minutes of my life to disconnect the line...

Yes that was in Mexico... so the point is?

Did I mention I had to tackle one well meaning young police officer who started to run towards a life line as the rest of us were waiting for the all clear?

No, nobody charged me for assault on a cop... otoh his training officer read him the riot act.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Horrific!

[RamboLiberal]

BTW the Attorney representing the family I believe is Arlen Specter's son

And a highly successfull attorney getting huge judgements in cases.

I googled him to find out if he was related to Arlen.

[targetpractice]

10. woops, wrong place

delete!

[RamboLiberal]

11. See you caught your oops