Yet Another Darwin

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Yet Another Darwin


Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 10:35:05 CDT

(Darwin awards are given to people who improve the gene pool by
killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way)

We have many transmission lines that crisscross the state. These
are held up by Transmission Towers of different construction.
Near most urban areas these are normally "metal Ornamental
Towers" (they are supposed to be prettier than wood towers).

Sometimes we have folks who feel it would be nice to climb these
towers and enjoy the night air. Most enjoy their view, stay away
from the wires, and when they get bored, come back down. Well
this is a story of a fella who was a little despondent over a
recent fight with a girlfriend and decided he needed a little
fresh air to clear his head. He proceeded to climb a tower south
of Hartford next to I-91. Before he got to his tower though he
decided to stop for a 6 pack to help clear his thoughts.

Here our "Darwin Award winner-to-be" sits 60 feet above the
highway, drinking his beer, consoling his bruised ego. Our friend
had 5 beers when he decided he needed the services of a men's
room. It being of such a long hike down, he unzips and decides to
do his business right there off the tower. Electricity is a funny
thing. You don't need to touch a wire in order to get shocked. On
these 15,000 volt lines depending on the conditions, you could be
as far away as 6' and still get shocked.

Well, our friend proceeded to "whiz" near the conductor (wire)
when the power arced to his "stream" (salt water is a most
excellent conductor of electricity) followed up to his private
parts and blew him off the tower.

The utility company had a momentary outage on this line
and sent workmen to see if there was any damage. When the guys
got to the scene of the accident, they found a very dead person,
his fly down, what was left of his private parts smoking and a
single beer left on top of the tower.


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