Grays Harbor just made the Darwin Competition.
Elma man electrocuted by urinating on power line

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MONTESANO, Wash. -- An Elma man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a one-car crash near Montesano.

Grays Harbor County sheriff's Deputy Dave Pimentel (PIM'-en-tel) said Monday that 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday night and called a relative to pull his car out of the ditch.

When family members arrived they found Messenger electrocuted. Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn't see the live wire.

Pimentel says there will be an autopsy but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through the body.

They actually devoted a portion of an episode of "Mythbusters" to the question of whether one could electrocute oneself by urinating on an electrified fencc. After several attemtpts, they could not get enough electricity to "go up the stream" and concluded that it was a myth. Maybe there just wasn't enough power involved with the electrified fence.

I now know 2 people who have won a Darwin awards, the one was a guy back east who made it into one of the book's.

That is indeed the explanation. Electric fencing systems generate 12 volts, or so, while electrical distribution cables, as I recall from my days at McCleary Light & Power, are generally up there in the 50 0r 100 kilovolt range.

Electric fence voltages can be quite high. What kills is current, expressed in amps.

You are correct. I was remiss in not also indicating that the amperage in electrical distribution cables is far greater than that carried in an electric fence.

I just realized that Mr Messenger (and his wife and daughter) was my neighbor 29 years ago.

Was he drunk? One car crash + have to pee so bad usually = drinking.

We won't know for sure until the toxicology report comes back. His relatives said that he had been drinking, but did not appear to be drunk according to the news reports.

The autopsy report just issued finds he touched a wire with his hand, not his urine stream.

Score another one for the "Mythbusters."

As I recall that episode's myth was peeing on the third rail in the subway, which carries a heck of a lot more amperage than an electrified fence.

That must have been a different episode. And who does that?