As one of the engineers at an electrical utility company it was my job many times to investigate accidents that involved the public. The saddest one I ever investigated was when our attorney sent me out on one where he said I am sending you because I can trust you to tell me what actually happened. He said if we ever get to court I can get all of the professional witnesses I want, but right now I need someone to find out what happened. It took quite a while with a line crew cutting wires, taking measurements including ground conductivity readings and then reconnecting them and remeasuring. It turned out that through a series of almost unbelievable circumstances squirrels eating through aluminum and steel cables had caused a chain link fence to become a much better grounding conductor than all of our other grounds. If the fence had been shorter it would not have mattered but it resulted in the death of a four year old girl getting electrocuted while climbing over the fence and grabbing hold to a guy wire to steady herself. This was six days after the accident and the squirrels had already eaten the insulation off of the wires that had we had used to replace the original ones. I knew the family of the little girl and my oldest daughter was almost the exact same age as the one who died. I had a hard time with that case and told the attorneys that if it did come to trial do not put me on the stand. I do not know what the outcome other than I know a scholarship program was started in her name.
As one of the engineers at an electrical utility company it was my job many times to investigate accidents that involved the public. The saddest one I ever investigated was when our attorney sent me out on one where he said I am sending you because I can trust you to tell me what actually happened. He said if we ever get to court I can get all of the professional witnesses I want, but right now I need someone to find out what happened. It took quite a while with a line crew cutting wires, taking measurements including ground conductivity readings and then reconnecting them and remeasuring. It turned out that through a series of almost unbelievable circumstances squirrels eating through aluminum and steel cables had caused a chain link fence to become a much better grounding conductor than all of our other grounds. If the fence had been shorter it would not have mattered but it resulted in the death of a four year old girl getting electrocuted while climbing over the fence and grabbing hold to a guy wire to steady herself. This was six days after the accident and the squirrels had already eaten the insulation off of the wires that had we had used to replace the original ones. I knew the family of the little girl and my oldest daughter was almost the exact same age as the one who died. I had a hard time with that case and told the attorneys that if it did come to trial do not put me on the stand. I do not know what the outcome other than I know a scholarship program was started in her name.