The Jodie Lane Project: New York, NY -- February 12, 2004.
The City Council Transportation Committee held a hearing today to investigate the causes of Jodie S. Lane’s tragic electrocution death on January 16th. The testimony revealed a startling lack of oversight on the part of the Public Services Commission, charged with overseeing Con Edison’s compliance with the National Electric Safety Code, last revised in 1913.
With only 5 inspectors at their disposal, the Public Services Commission relies entirely on Con Edison to report safety problems. Because Con Edison only reports incidents resulting in injury or death, the PSC was aware of only 15 shock incidents in the last 5 years. Con Edison has acknowledged that it actually received 539 reports of shock incidents in the same period, effectively admitting to misleading the PSC by an order of magnitude.
It is not only this discrepancy that is alarming, but also the fact that the Public Services Commission, charged with ensuring the safety of the public, currently has no preventative inspection program in place. The PSC only inspects equipment after a shock incident has occurred, and only then if they are notified of the event by Con Edison. To add insult to literal injury, they have never sued Con Edison for a safety violation, in spite of their mandate to do so.
The current arrangement, which effectively relies on Con Edison to oversee its own equipment and report its own safety violations, is absolutely unacceptable and led directly to the death of Jodie Lane.
Both the PSC and Con Ed refer to Jodie Lane’s death as a “unique occurrence.” While Jodie Lane’s death marks the first time that the negligence of Con Edison and the Public Service Commission has resulted in such a tragedy, shock incidents are by no means rare. Gunnar Hellekson of the Jodie Lane Project finds this offensive: “Our Stray Voltage List has documented almost thirty incidents of electric shock, and that’s based entirely on ad hoc reports. That only took us a week, and we had no budget. I’m proud to say that we’ve done more work on this subject than the PSC ever has.”
The City Council Transportation Committee held a hearing today to investigate the causes of Jodie S. Lane’s tragic electrocution death on January 16th. The testimony revealed a startling lack of oversight on the part of the Public Services Commission, charged with overseeing Con Edison’s compliance with the National Electric Safety Code, last revised in 1913.
With only 5 inspectors at their disposal, the Public Services Commission relies entirely on Con Edison to report safety problems. Because Con Edison only reports incidents resulting in injury or death, the PSC was aware of only 15 shock incidents in the last 5 years. Con Edison has acknowledged that it actually received 539 reports of shock incidents in the same period, effectively admitting to misleading the PSC by an order of magnitude.
It is not only this discrepancy that is alarming, but also the fact that the Public Services Commission, charged with ensuring the safety of the public, currently has no preventative inspection program in place. The PSC only inspects equipment after a shock incident has occurred, and only then if they are notified of the event by Con Edison. To add insult to literal injury, they have never sued Con Edison for a safety violation, in spite of their mandate to do so.
The current arrangement, which effectively relies on Con Edison to oversee its own equipment and report its own safety violations, is absolutely unacceptable and led directly to the death of Jodie Lane.
Both the PSC and Con Ed refer to Jodie Lane’s death as a “unique occurrence.” While Jodie Lane’s death marks the first time that the negligence of Con Edison and the Public Service Commission has resulted in such a tragedy, shock incidents are by no means rare. Gunnar Hellekson of the Jodie Lane Project finds this offensive: “Our Stray Voltage List has documented almost thirty incidents of electric shock, and that’s based entirely on ad hoc reports. That only took us a week, and we had no budget. I’m proud to say that we’ve done more work on this subject than the PSC ever has.”
Comments