Electrocuted When Pissing (Third Rails: Electric Fences)

[gellatly68]

This sounds like a UL to me, but could anyone enlighten me further?

I heard about this in 1997. I'm not sure exactly where it took place - possibly Manchester/Liverpool and thereabouts.

A tramp was found dead near some railtracks. There was no immediately apparent cause of death. One puzzling feature was that his trousers were round his ankles.

The post mortem discovered burns to the tip of his penis, and evidence that he had been electrocuted.

So how did he die?

some bright spark (ha ha) came to the conclusion that the poor bloke had had a bit too much to drink, then needed to have a pee as he staggered along the track.

Unfortunately, he peed on the live rail....

 

[chockfullahate]

there was a guy in liverpool a few years ago found staggering down a road with his severed member in hand gushing blood everywhere..

 

[James_H]

i've heard this too: how many rails are actually electric?

 

[escargot]

This is supposed to happen to dogs when they 'use' faulty lampposts, in fact I think I read about one in the Guardian recently.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

gellatly68: I'm pretty sure I have seen a number of reports on such deaths from various plces - London, New York, etc. It is possible that they are UL but they seemed above board.

Hmmmm could be:

Myth Busters... I know that you have seen this show on Discovery... if not then you need to turn in your geek card before the end of this update. This show is pretty good they take urban legends and test to see if they possibly could happen. You know things like [...............] peeing on the third rail of a rail road will electrocute you (only if you are on your knees and have a REALLY REALLY healthy stream going on). You know fun things like that...

http://www.geocities.com/tomkern_2000/Notes2.htm

and from the show:

Episode 3: Barrel of Bricks, Pissing on the Third Rail, Eel Skin Wallet
Is it really that dangerous to answer the call of nature on the electrified third rail of a train track? Can an eel skin wallet erase all the magnetic information on your credit cards if the skin came from an electric eel? How about the story of the unluckiest construction worker on earth? A pulley system breaks down while he is lifting a barrel filled with 500 pounds of bricks. Will the barrel come straight down on the guy doing the pulling, or will he walk away without a scratch? Jamie and Adam take a crack at these classic legends.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/episode/episode.html

I measured the resistance of salt water in a cup. It is over 200k ohms. So, you can't get eletrocuted by pissing on the third rail.

http://www.nycrail.com/amb/board1/791.html

although this person is sceptical:

For any of you that don't know MythBusters is a show on Discovery Channel that tries to see if urban legends and myths are true or not. Usually it involved making elaborate and over the top mock-ups of the stuff more for fun than really trying to be accurate. But its awesome and a really solid method behind the madness.

Well, they had a show on a couple of weeks ago where they were testing if you could really get electrocuted by pissing on the third rail of a subway or other electric rail system. They said that you couldn't really get a good solid stream from you to the rail.

Well I found this on ananova.com. Clearly they could have been wrong. Although, ananova is listing pravda as a source, a news site that I have bookmarked under "Funny Stuff".

http://homepage.mac.com/dootbran/archives/000063.html

The ananova story is:

New penis grown on boy's arm

Doctors have grown a new penis on a Russian boy's arm after he lost his old one in a bizarre accident.

The 16-year-old, named only as Malik, lost his penis after receiving an electric shock while urinating on an electric wire.

Surgeons grew a new penis on his arm and have now moved it to his groin.

The Russian Clinical Hospital for Children surgeons created it by putting an empty latex cylinder in Malik's forearm and pumping a solution into it every day, reports Pravda.

The cylinder grew on the boy's arm for 10 months until it took on the shape of a penis.

Douglas Murray, a past president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, told Ananova this kind of plastic surgery was not uncommon.

Mr Murray said: "He would probably be able to stand up and urinate instead of having to sit and do so."

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_376025.html

I have seen similar surgery done on a German guy who crashed his motorbike at 200mph and it isn't overly pleasant but the procedure isn't beyond the limits of current medical surgery.

----------------------------------

Some other stuff:

Hmmmmmmmm:

A friend of mine, who used to be a 'Mole Person' living 5 levels under Grand Central Station, told me that a common technique for cooking steak was to place the steak on the third rail and then piss on it.

http://www.cooking-forum.com/cooking/Cooking_Steak_on_Third_Rail_947900.html

Cartoon here:

http://www.thefourthrail.com/features/0902/toronto2.shtml

Emps

 

[filcee]

I've peed on an electric cattle fence while out fishing, made me jump and left me a bit numb for a while

 

[Electric_Monk]

I've heard this story before too, it always freaked me out

i've heard this too: how many rails are actually electric?

I vaguelly recall from a map of the UK that only a tiny portion of all railway tracks in the UK have electrified rails on the ground (I think only a few miles in total, for instance, a lot of it in the North West of England). Plenty have overhead wires though, like for the less used local service from Edinburgh to some nearer towns on the "slow" line to Glasgow The electric trains they use also appear to be from the Train Depot That Time Forgot.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong, it was some time ago I saw that stuff

 

[Timble2]

I've heard this story before too, it always freaked me out



I vaguelly recall from a map of the UK that only a tiny portion of all railway tracks in the UK have electrified rails on the ground (I think only a few miles in total, for instance, a lot of it in the North West of England). Plenty have overhead wires though, like for the less used local service from Edinburgh to some nearer towns on the "slow" line to Glasgow The electric trains they use also appear to be from the Train Depot That Time Forgot.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong, it was some time ago I saw that stuff

Actually most of the lines South of London and down to the South coast are England are electified on the third rail.

In the Northwest there's the third rail lines to Chester, Southport, the Wirral and Ormskirk

See page 6:

At:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Documents/bus_plan_2004/S11 - Network Capability.pdf

Third rail 650/750v - 4,337 km
Overhead 25kV - 8,783 km (most of that is down to the East Coast and West Coast mainlines.)

I heard this story in the 1960s from a retired (steam) engine driver, about a fireman who'd pee'd off from the footplate of a steam locomotive while they were on one of the electrified lines out of Liverpool.

 

[Anonymous]

http://freespace.virgin.net/christopher.rose/RenStimpLyrics.htm


sureshot

 

[lopaka]

Marshall Houts' * Where Death Delights* contains the story of one Joseph Patrick O'Malley, a man living in New York City early in the 20th century who had two unfortunate habits: heavy drinking and wandering through subway tunnels.

One morning, O'Malley's mangled body was found in a tunnel 50 yards from the nearest station. He had apparently been struck and killed by a train.

But an autopsy turned up another cause: "The burns on the head of the penis and on the thumb and forefinger were obviously electrical burns....The stream of urine had come into contact with the 600 volts of the third rail. The current had coursed up the stream to cause the burns on his body as the electricity entered it.

"In all probability, he was dead from electrocution before the train ever hit his body."

I knew i'd read this before somewhere. The full title of the book is:

Where Death Delights : Adventures in Courtroom Medicine, or, the Story of Dr. Milton Helpern and Forensic Medicine
Coward, McCann 1967

The book is also noteworthy for fortean stuff of various kinds. Among others, Dr. Helpern, one of the leading pathologists in the US at the time, is quoted completely trashing the JFK autopsy.

 

[Raya_Kaiserin]

I have a friend who once urinated on an electric fence...he got quite a shock. Needless to say, we were taking the piss outta him (no pun intended) for quite a while

 

[Imperial_Call]

I've peed on an electric cattle fence while out fishing, made me jump and left me a bit numb for a while

I'll bet! I was closing a gate once, and my back touched the lecky fence wire, while I was still holding the metal gate latch. :eek!!!!: Jeebus, my hair stood on end!

 

[James_H]

thanks, colin and timble

 

[Anonymous]

This may sound a bit pointless but did anyone ever see that weird programme "world of pain"? It's just I remember in one episode, as a morbid experiment somebody decided to piss on an electric fence live on camera to see how much it hurt, looked pretty damn painful but didn't harm him. Ah the wonders of late night crap on tv, so educational for my young impressionable mind..........hehe.

 

[hedgewizard1]

electric fences

A friend set up a "hot wire" around the top of his fence to keep his dog from jumping over it. Problem was, he used a cattle fence charger instead of the less powerful version. Dog hit the wire, and spent some time on the ground, gathering its senses. Never did try to jump the fence again. A couple of songbirds met their maker via the wire, as well.

 

[tuco]

Its very important not to piss on the electric fence, once saw a ( drunken ) friend do this, he managed to scream and throw up at the same time, he said it was the most painful thing he had ever known, I found it one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I suppose it depends on your perspective.

 

[kamalktk]

Its very important not to piss on the electric fence, once saw a ( drunken ) friend do this, he managed to scream and throw up at the same time, he said it was the most painful thing he had ever known, I found it one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I suppose it depends on your perspective.

I think I might be misremembering the quote, but, "Tragedy is when I stub my toe. Comedy is when you fall down a well."

 

[Tempest63]

Its very important not to piss on the electric fence, once saw a ( drunken ) friend do this, he managed to scream and throw up at the same time, he said it was the most painful thing he had ever known, I found it one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I suppose it depends on your perspective.

Quite right...people would pay good money for that experience.