Our admittedly obsessive concern for the health, heroics and incompetence of Verizon employees continues this morning with news from the Pittsburgh area that a contractor manning a jackhammer hit an underground power line that delivered to him 23,000 volts, and, remarkably, left him alive to tell the tale.
From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
A worker from InfraSource was using the jackhammer to break up rocks in connection with a fiber-optic project when he hit the power line about 4:45 p.m. along Boyce Park Drive, Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said.
The worker was jolted with about 23,000 volts of electricity, a Unity Volunteer Fire Department representative told television reporters.
The extent of the unidentified man’s injuries was unknown.
The incident also sparked a debate here in my office over the meaning of the word “electrocuted,” with me arguing that its use necessitates the victim be dead – as in pregnant; either you are or you aren’t – and a colleague insisting that the man operating the jackhammer was electrocuted despite surviving.
My dictionary backs me up and I believe I’m on solid ground, but feel free to disagree.
