[SML] Rock Singer Electrocuted on Stage

[June Abernathy]

> On Nov 27, 2014, at 3:00 PM, Frank Wood wrote:
> 
> All the same, I find it hard to see how a lethal electrocution can
> happen with US 120V supplies.


It is totally possible to be electrocuted by a 120V supply. It is harder to do, in general, than it is with a higher voltage, but other factors like sweaty hands or spitty mikes or weak hearts or metal floors or just a perfect storm of it hitting the wrong person at the right moment can do it. Frank is not the only person I have met who assumes that 120V can't kill you. It is an incredibly dangerous assumption.

I have been "bitten" by 120V many times, and 220V once, and lived to tell the tale. Although some people clearly have better resistance (literally!) to electrical shock than others, and i appear to be one of them, I still credit my continued existence on the planet to good fortune and some everyday precautions, not inherent immunity. I work with care, even around 120V, because on any given day, one of those "bites" may, in fact, be enough.

P.S. Pet Peeve - Lethal electrocution is redundant. If you lived, you were shocked. If you didn't, you were electrocuted.

June Abernathy
IATSE #321 (Tampa, FL)
FOH Electrician
The Lion King National Tour