Another electrocution story from this week. SO sad.

[spurhunter]

I think there was a link about eh Ozarks story on the board wasn't there? My heart breaks for these families.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/0 ... rent-lake/

[bassn386]

It is so preventable. There are so many docks here that were wired by the homeowner or a shade tree electrician who don't know anything about grounding or GFCI's.
I would never be able to forgive myself if one of my kids/grandkids or guests was electrocuted because of my negligence.
The initial wiring of our dock was done by someone who was supposedly a "licensed" electrician. But in 1996 I didn't understand the need for grounding. There was a gfci, but it was on the main circuit panel in the house and lots can happen when a circuit is about 100' long after the gfci. It is not uncommon to see a wire hanging from a tree or a pole from the house to the dock down here.
We had the dock rewired several years ago and now it's to Ameren's code, so I don't worry about it. All of my neighbors have wired their docks to code as well.
There was an electrician on a local radio show the other day who estimated that only about half the 30,000+ docks are wired properly. Some people will get the message and have an electrician come look at the wiring, but I doubt if it will be more than a couple hundred at most.

[DonCabo]

Wow, so sad.

[brumbyvet.1044]

This happened on the lake we live and play on. The marina where it happened is about 20 miles up river from us but we have been there many times. Needless to say, the news traveled very fast around the lake and made for a very sad holiday week. The houseboat in question belonged to one of the boys grandfather. This accident will be remembered on this week for many, many years.

[GregF]

These DNR/CoE people should hire an electrical inspector to go around and check every dock on the lakes.

The things you have to look at would usually only take a few minutes but I bet the number of red tags and pulled meters would make the job politically impossible.

[Bamaman]

All it takes is switching a white wire with a black wire--reversing the polarity. On light bulbs, polarity doesn't matter, but on 110 volt 3/4 horsepower motors on boat lifts it does matter.

My father twice cut the boathouse wiring with a lawnmower, and never put his glasses on when splicing the wires back. The first time, he dove in when swimming, and barely got up the metal swim ladder while being shocked. The second time, I saw sparks fly when I brought the pontoon boat in at night.

We were wondering why all those fish were floating around our dock.

And to think my family is a bunch of IBEW electricians, and my father administered the Electrician Apprenticeship program at TVA. This is a serious life threatening issue.

[GregF]

All it takes is switching a white wire with a black wire--reversing the polarity. On light bulbs, polarity doesn't matter, but on 110 volt 3/4 horsepower motors on boat lifts it does matter.

Why?
These motors generally use a drum switch that open both legs.

I would worry more about the lamp since the switch would be opening the neutral and the screw shell of the lamp would be hot.

The thing that is killing people is bad grounding practices and the lack of GFCI protection.