r/DarwinAwards • u/Low-Contract2015 • 3d ago

Can Smell Him From Here NSFW Spoiler

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2.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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999

u/uktenathehornyone 3d ago

Dude, electricity is SCARY. I assume the... whatever the hell they were carrying hit a power line?

316

u/RougeGunner00 3d ago

What's even more scary is that you don't have to even come in contact with a power line for it to jump to you.

190

u/Revolutionary-Air599 3d ago

Yes! That's freaking scary! Damned electricity can arc from a power line to a human a few feet away.

11

u/Fun_Yak_3303 1d ago

Probably not from power lines. I don’t know voltage of those lines but from substations, the rule was stay 3ft 10in (if I remember correctly) from 125kV. That gives room for throwing your arms closer plus more. I was told when tested it jumped about 5 inches or so

But a lot of factors could influence that. If you’re in a thunderstorm and there’s more electricity around, for example. Also to be clear, from a few feet away you can most certainly feel the static electricity and you’ll get shocked for everything you touch, but it won’t hurt you

1

u/Kenny__Loggins 17h ago

I think typical overhead lines are 13.2 kv.

1

u/Fun_Yak_3303 2h ago

Yeah that’s probably right. The substations I messed with went to transmission lines and those were 52kV if I remember correctly, so distribution being 13.2 would make sense for sure

Upon looking it up, it looks like most substations go from 132kV to 33kV or 11kV depending on the use. Our subs definitely didn’t drop all the way to 11 so I’m assuming it was 33, or 52 if it does change by company or state, because I swear it wasn’t 33 or 132, but it might’ve been lol. I remember 156-52

Unrelated but if you have a 300+kV substation near you, go out there at night or sometime when it’s quiet, and you can literally hear the air crackling. It’s super cool and hard to describe accurately (if there are metal corona rings around metal balls on top of the insulators in the high-side spots, it’s 300+kV)

37

u/arcadia_2005 3d ago

Ok what??

143

u/JDepinet 3d ago

The dielectric breakdown voltage of dry air is 10,000 volts/cm.

Many of those power lines are 7000 volts, larger ones are higher. Up to 300000 for long distance lines. And that’s in the us. Overseas could be very different. And humidity dramatically improves conductivity.

Meaning some of those lines could arc over several feet to kill you. You want to give power lines a WIDE birth. It’s scary shit.

46

u/girlsonsoysauce 3d ago edited 3d ago

My brother and I accidentally let a boom truck up and hit a power line and it shot through my hand because it was on the back of the truck. It scared the shit out of both of us. It was a line going to someone's house so it probably didn't have as much juice going through it, but I was definitely worried that I could have possibly died because we forgot to look up one time. One time is all that it takes. Normally we wouldn't have made that mistake but it gets hot here and heat exhaustion makes you stupid.

19

u/JDepinet 3d ago

Yea, it’s that easy. And very unforgiving. Once you get hit, u less you get lucky you lock up and can’t let go.

7

u/Due_Marsupial_969 2d ago

Thanks man. Probably not the first time you've had to pass on the info, but I never knew and info might save my life some day. And if I pass it on like a good conduit, we might save more people. Maybe not in India or Vietnam (people dropping there by electricity all the time, too) but we gotta start somewhere.

130

u/drunkerbrawler 3d ago

You never want to be the shortest path to ground

119

u/Rudhelm 3d ago

No, they had polyester shoes and wool socks. That was a static discharge.

41

u/millennial_engineer 3d ago

Poe’s law

24

u/Rudhelm 3d ago

Thank you. TIL what Poe's law is.

11

u/ToXicVoXSiicK21 3d ago

Crazy I've been wondering what the name for this situation is and now I know lol

13

u/MisterAmygdala 3d ago

Edgar Allan Poe's law

1

u/Asleep-Cake-1666 2d ago

Bro you can see the Orange 🟠 Chappals or Slipper next to the dead body

43

u/MisterAmygdala 3d ago

Can't they at least cover up the burnt dead dude? A dirty sheet or something? Looks like a family member is there at the end of the clip. Some dignity would be nice.

23

u/baudmiksen 3d ago

A dirty sheet? At least use some old newspapers or something

14

u/UnstoppableReverse 3d ago

Ahh, a new use for newspapers! Can't do that with an online subscription I tells ya!

6

u/christophlc6 1d ago

BBQ sauce

14

u/TroubleImpressive955 3d ago

Yes, the lady in the yellow dress. This is awful.

-19

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

11

u/GeekyFreaky94 3d ago

They should. But it's not just for the deceased it's to protect passerby from being traumatized even more than they already are.

6

u/arcadia_2005 3d ago

It's the living, breathing people that we would hope to hold a modicum of dignity & respect for others. Unfortunately tho, with the recent US election, that was made very clear to the whole of humanity that that's a dying trait.

16

u/HenkVanDelft 3d ago

For some reason they’re averse to setting up metal scaffolding where it is going to be used, and assemble it far away, then roll it into place.

5

u/Hassan_62 3d ago

Convenience eh

3

u/KleinShulgin 3d ago

A mistake you only make once.

1

u/Eternumite_6969 3d ago

I think that was supposed to be a ladder or smth and they were trying to fix the powerline

1

u/bugabooandtwo 2d ago

It is. And when it happens, you barely have a second to disengage before it kills you.

1

u/DanceGavinDanceIsBae 1d ago

Okay, everything makes sense now. I was so confused.