Casualty - tonight

Channel Hopper

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
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My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
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UK
Well it looks like fireworks are on the special effects as somebody is climbing a pylon with a view to shorting out one of the cables to ground.
 
They use all the bodies left over from Midsomer, apparently.




Both of them.
 
Not as realistic as hoped, in the storyline the bloke that touches the cable lives to speak (after falling the 20m as well) when in reality they would be little more than burnt toast.
 
Saw this casualty ep. today, and I was just full of complaints about the pylon scene, that kid up there would have been blown to bits as the water in his body rapidly boiled, and the heat from the arcing would burn him to toast, not burn his skin and leave him looking wet, he'd be missing limbs and would be on fire upon landing, and not to mention the landing would have smashed his spine and left him 100% dead... :rolleyes:

Well done BBC for that blatant censorship of real life... :p
 
Agreed. Somewhere else on here is that video of the man in top of the train (in India) who touched the live rail. Didn't last long with just a few thousand volts, the energy carried from a pylon would do so much more.

Just how would one steal a pylon and sell it off for scrap anyway ?
 
As someone who had, for a number of years, the unfortunate task of investigating work-related Power Line contacts and then acting as an Expert Witness for the Coroner (in all too many cases) and for any associated Criminal cases, perhaps it's as well I don't watch populist drivel like Casualty, or my vocal chords would be damaged by raving in disbelief at the TV screen!

CH: I investigated a number of cases of theft of sections of surface accessible live HV cabling from large Industrial sites too, and often the culprits were unharmed - as evidenced by CCTV footage and the absence of bodies. Quite remarkable levels of electrical Protection at HV. There to protect the infrastructure though, not invaders! And definitely not to be relied upon for personal protection.

Best one was when an unsupervised labourer, whilst using a sledgehammer to drive reinforcing rods deep down as part of the foundations for a new 400kV Substation, managing to hit a short section of 132kV rated live underground cable and got away without a scratch. The cost of replacement, however, was huge. That stuff don't come cheap.
 
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Those two are luckier than the one in the video response
 
Oh, absolutely.

I'm afraid I've dealt with rather too many fatalities and serious burns "accidents", before retiring. Gruesome.

Everything from young children, through non-electrically qualified tradesmen (Joiners, Plumbers, etc.), Farmers, to "competent" electricians, thieves/vandals and even properly accredited HV Engineers.
 
Everybody completing the first year at college was given the choice to learn electronics, or power electrics.
From memory only one person took up the latter.

Mind you, it hasn't stopped the fascination with Jacobs ladders and other Tesla/Vandergraff kit, and I've had my fair share of 'belts' from mains equipment, television EHT voltages, and various magneto and capacitor discharge ignition systems.
 
Yes, it can be seen as a black art - but it's still chiefly Ohms Law.

Just with a lot more Kaboom !!
 
I was going to make a quip about it being the original Bear Grylls (sic) until they said it survived!
 
I've seen those videos several times, but it still shocks me (no pun intended) to see how fast you can go from seeing them alive to being either just plain gone, or near death, all in one split second... :eek:

And as I said before, well done the BBC for censoring real life... :rolleyes:
 
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