Tragedy

[Blind Squirrel]

Girl, 11, Electrocuted Near Lagoon At Toms River Home: Police - Toms River, NJ Patch*
https://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/girl-11-electrocuted-near-lagoon-toms-river-home-police
GFIs are probably impractical as a total preventive in a marine setting, but there are small floating alarm units that sense electricity in the water.

[bunker dunker]

prayers sent to who family.very sad

[Capt. Debbie]

Sad and a big law suit in there too. That electrician is likely driving to Mexico right now before the DA and the Plaintiff's lawyer catch him.

If the report is correct and the metal housing was properly grounded and bonded it could never happen. And yes a GFCI ( if properly installed too) would have stopped that another way.

Home handy men killed this kid. Saved a few bucks and it gets you this!

[Blind Squirrel]

Sad and a big law suit in there too. That electrician is likely driving to Mexico right now before the DA and the Plaintiff's lawyer catch him.

If the report is correct and the metal housing was properly grounded and bonded it could never happen. And yes a GFCI ( if properly installed too) would have stopped that another way.

Home handy men killed this kid. Saved a few bucks and it gets you this!
The new owners of the property apparently neglected an initially code-compliant installation.
I've never done any dock wiring, but PVC junction boxes at water level seem preferable to corrosion-prone galvanized steel. Ground faults on GFI service mains are hard to troubleshoot, but burying an 11 year-old kid is a whole lot harder.
APP did a more detailed story on it than the one in my OP:
http://www.app.com/story/news/local/emergencies/2017/06/18/girl-electrocuted-dies-toms-river-lagoon/407079001/

[dakota560]

Prayers go out to the family of this young girl. Tragic doesn't come close to describing how devastating it is to lose a child no matter what the circumstances are.

[Abrasion]

Sad and a big law suit in there too. That electrician is likely driving to Mexico right now before the DA and the Plaintiff's lawyer catch him.

If the report is correct and the metal housing was properly grounded and bonded it could never happen. And yes a GFCI ( if properly installed too) would have stopped that another way.

Home handy men killed this kid. Saved a few bucks and it gets you this!


Wrong. Why make dumb comments like this before knowing the entire story. A young girl has died and you immediately blame "Harry homeowner". According to the article it was built to code. Too soon for this

[capt74]

Agreed Abrasion people just assume it was done wrong. As you stated it was permitted and inspected. Salt water eats everything up. The GFIC would have to have been installed on the service panel for it to be a effective. Like the report says a tragic accident.

[PeteyHD]

Regardless still very sad story

[Capt. Debbie]

Everything is built to code. It's supposed to be maintained and repaired when necessary too. All metal around water is supposed to be bonded and then tied to ground. That's NEC. Even the bond wire around your pool or your hot tub/spa's ladder, surrounding metal and fence has to be a certain large size solid copper wire and create a bond grid of solid #8 copper wire. And in many application and second 8 foot long driven rod ground must be banged into the ground and installed too.

And GFCI's ALL( breakers and outlets) have test buttons to introduce a leak to trigger them. That's how they are tested. Do people bother? No. Or just blame someone else?

If it was properly installed AND MAINTAINED this occurrence is physically impossible. People always want to blame someone else for their omissions or ignorance.

Yes a person is dead that should NOT BE. And Sh*t happens is not the reason no matter how matter how sad the homeowners are.





Wrong. Why make dumb comments like this before knowing the entire story. A young girl has died and you immediately blame "Harry homeowner". According to the article it was built to code. Too soon for this

[Blind Squirrel]

Everything is built to code. It's supposed to be maintained and repaired when necessary too. All metal around water is supposed to be bonded and then tied to ground. That's NEC. Even the bond wire around your pool or your hot tub/spa's ladder, surrounding metal and fence has to be a certain large size solid copper wire and create a bond grid of solid #8 copper wire. And in many application and second 8 foot long driven rod ground must be banged into the ground and installed too.

And GFCI's ALL( breakers and outlets) have test buttons to introduce a leak to trigger them. That's how they are tested. Do people bother? No. Or just blame someone else?

If it was properly installed AND MAINTAINED this occurrence is physically impossible. People always want to blame someone else for their omissions or ignorance.

Yes a person is dead that should NOT BE. And Sh*t happens is not the reason no matter how matter how sad the homeowners are.
The new homeowners were apparently not boaters and neglected the required maintenance on a boat lift they never used, Cappy, so they're certainly somewhat at fault. Turning off power at the main seems like a "no-brainer" unless they used convenience outlets, lighting, etc. on it. A driven or other adequate ground and PVC enclosures would most likely have prevented this tragedy with or without ground fault protection.
If the current owners got a home inspection and it wasn't in the report, I'd say the home inspector's the primary culprit though, but attorneys go for the deepest pockets.

[Capt. Debbie]

Its so so sad and a waste. Poor kid.

Yea just power it down.

Home inspectors specialize in a trade. Roofing. Plumbing. Electrical. It's very rare to get an inspector good in all. And the Inspector liability to home owner is only up to the cost of the inspection. I'm sure Mr. Inspector will be named in the negligence suit too.




The new homeowners were apparently not boaters and neglected the required maintenance on a boat lift they never used, Cappy, so they're certainly somewhat at fault. Turning off power at the main seems like a "no-brainer" unless they used convenience outlets on it. A driven or other adequate ground and PVC enclosures would most likely have prevented this tragedy with or without ground fault protection.
If the current owners got a home inspection and it wasn't in the report, I'd say the home inspector's the primary culprit though, but attorneys go for the deepest pockets.

[NoLimit]

The other side of this is how did the hot lead insulation fail? If the hot lead was properly insulated in the circuit while it was off, there would be no leak.

[Capt. Debbie]

That's why the grounding is doubled up. A hot lead touching grounded housing creates a ground fault and instantly blows the breaker.

I had an electrical job where some idiot ran romex through aluminum siding. No box no chafe protection. The Al siding cut into jacket and then the hot and energized the whole house's siding. Touch a water pipe and his siding and ZAP!!!! 120VAC

[Blind Squirrel]

The other side of this is how did the hot lead insulation fail? If the hot lead was properly insulated in the circuit while it was off, there would be no leak.
It was probably 220 volt and had 2 hot leads. Properly insulated wires are an especially good idea in wet locations like docks, but from what I've read about it, the problem was most likely an open ground that allowed the metal in the boat lift to become energized without tripping the breaker. A good solid ground would probably have prevented this tragic incident from happening.