By NATALIE STOREY | The New Mexican May 17, 2007

Teen electrocuted while spray painting electrical substation

An 18-year-old man suffered serious burns Wednesday after he was electrocuted while spray painting graffiti inside an electrical substation in northwest Santa Fe, according to police.

The man, who was airlifted to University Hospital with third-degree burns to 50 to 70 percent of his body, called 911 from his cell phone at about 4:30 p.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Ted Bolleter.

Bolleter said the man, whose clothes were burned, was conscious when paramedics arrived. The man was burned both from the electrical shock and from his clothes catching fire, Bolleter said.

It was a miracle the man, who authorities didn’t immediately identify, survived the shock because the amount of electricity that flows through the substation could easily stop a human heart, Bolleter said. “It was a potentially life-threatening injury,” Bolleter said. “He was lucky to be alive.”

The substation near Buckman Road supplies electricity to 5,800 households in the area, said Jeff Buell, spokesman for the Public Service Company of New Mexico. About 115,000 volts of electricity flow into the substation through high-voltage wires. Inside, the current is redistributed and sent out to customers through underground wires. The area is clearly labeled with high-voltage signs, Buell said, and the facility is protected by a cement wall and razor wire that sits atop a wall.

The man apparently jumped the wall and the wire to get inside the facility, said police Sgt. Aric Wheeler.

Wheeler said police have had reports of young people tagging or doing graffiti in the area many times before. He said police would wait to learn the man’s condition before deciding whether to charge him with a crime. He could be charged with trespassing or criminal damage to property.

Although other parts of the property have been tagged, this appears to be the first time someone has tried to tag the inside of the substation, Buell said.

“Entering an electrical substation is a very dangerous thing to do,” Buell said. “We strongly encourage people not to duplicate this act.”

There is so much electricity running through the substation that the current does not need a strong conductor — such as a metal wire or stream of water — to escape and electrocute someone, Buell said. A stream of spray paint would be more than sufficient to conduct electricity inside the substation, he said.

The incident caused a two- to three-second outage, Buell said. There were other isolated outages reported in Santa Fe on Wednesday afternoon, but Buell said those occurred because of lightning and wind in the area.

Contact Natalie Storey at 986-3026 or nstorey@sfnewmexican.com.

Submitted on 05/17/2007

Submitted by: Pablo Blanco
Reference: Santa Fe New Mexican 5-17-2007

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
No, this one is definitely different! Spray painting the INSIDE of the substation? Why was this one not content merely to tag the outside? Thanks for the story, Pablo

Shadow said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
we have this story already thanks!

Graham said:
Definitely Toss: Other
I seem to recall seeing this one before. In any event, justice appears to have been meted out. Thanks, Pablo.

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
I couldn't find the repeat Shadow mentioned, and I agree with Chip on this one. Graffiti INSIDE the substation seems pretty stupid to me. What's the point if nobody would ever see it?

The Darwin Awards Gift Shop

$16 Smoking Crater T-Shirt / Black
Heavy 100% cotton, black Hanes Beefy-T with an inadvisable cigarette break on the front... a smoking crater on the back! Click on the image for a full view. Based on true stories. Errata: TNT will not explode in the presence of a lit cigarette. The man was actually sitting on a crate of gelignite.
Buy the Smoking Crater T-Shirt