[C320-list] Marina Safety

[Stan]

*Some of you know of my crusade for electrical safety in marinas.  The story
below drives home the point of boat maintenance and the dangers of swimming
in marinas.*

*A Preventable Dockside Tragedy*
*
By Kevin Ritz*

[image: Image1]
*Lucas Ritz: 1991-1999 *

We were a live-aboard family with three active children at a freshwater
marina on a tributary of the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon. Other
kids were already swimming in the cove because it was that kind of day—hot
and lazy. This was a common practice by adults as well as children during
the warm summer of 1999.
Our sons Ian, age 10, and Lucas, age eight, asked to swim with their
friends. Permission was granted, subject to close adult supervision by
parents including their mother, a graduate nurse. The boys were both wearing
Type II PFD life jackets, so it was great fun and a presumably safe to play
in the water. Our children were schooled in aquatic safety. Being young
professional people, my wife, Sheryl, and I had taken every precaution we
could for peace of mind in a water environment.

On the inside of the dock, the kids were having a great time floating down
with the river current on an inner tube. Lucas moved away from the others
toward his mother, who was keeping pace on the dock with the children’s water
activity. As he approached the ladder to get out of the water, he let out a
loud gasp, immediately rolling onto his back in his life jacket, apparently
unconscious. Sheryl yelled to the other kids to help him and jumped into the
water herself.

As the kids approached Lucas, they felt a slight tingly sensation in the
water and immediately backed off. Upon hitting the water downstream from
Lucas, Sheryl’s extremities went numb and she experienced extreme difficulty
moving her limbs, which, at the time, she attributed to fear. Somehow,
Sheryl managed to pull Lucas to the dockside where others assisted in
getting him onto the dock.
I arrived moments later after hearing the commotion and, along with another
onlooker, started giving him CPR, which we continued until the paramedics
took over approximately 15 to 20 minutes later. Our beloved Lucas was
pronounced dead at 6:30 pm at Portland’s Emanuel Hospital. One moment he was
laughing and playing—an instant later, his short life was over, leaving our
hearts broken forever.
As parents we suffered agonies of “how did this happen?” This question then
turned into “why did this happen?” We relived every moment trying to sort
out what we did or didn’t do. It was not until the next morning that we were
able to start unraveling the pieces of the mystery. The first assumption was
that he drowned. However, he was wearing the best life jacket money could
buy, which kept his face out of the water even though he was unconscious. He
was pulled from a floating position only moments after rolling onto his back
and CPR was started immediately. Also, at no time during CPR could we detect
a heartbeat and his color was good. Neither of these observations would
indicate drowning.

As Sheryl was telling me what had happened, she said she had never been so
fearful in her life as to have her extremities tingle and go numb to the
point where she could hardly move while in the water. Ian then related to me
for the first time that he also felt a tingling as he approached his
brother. Upon hearing all this it seemed clear to me that he did not drown,
but that somehow, some way, AC electricity was present in the water where
the kids were swimming. Our Lucas had been electrocuted.
I then called the County Coroner’s office, requesting an autopsy if they had
not already done so, because knowledge of the circumstances and common sense
pointed to electrocution, not drowning. They argued that there were no burns
on his body. I pointed out that Lucas had been in an electrolytic solution,
which eliminated the resistance of the skin (ordinarily skin resistance
results in burns when an individual is electrocuted on land). To my complete
horror, they responded that they would not even know how to test for
something like that.
I told them that testing was not difficult and that I was going to test the
water in the area. I then called the local Sheriff’s Department and left a
message telling them my suspicions. With my digital voltmeter, I went to the
area where Lucas had been, put the negative lead to a ground, dropped the
positive lead into the water, and immediately got AC voltage. I notified the
Sheriff’s Department, reporting what I had found and that I wanted to get
someone to confirm my test. They agreed to send out some deputies while I
called in an electrician. He arrived later that morning, tracing the
electricity to a powerboat that was in the area where the kids had been
swimming.
Concerns about liability soon unleashed a stream of other investigators, all
of whom were suddenly interested in determining the source of the current.
The local utility company wound up sending a team. The owner and manager of
the marina arrived. More deputies were called.
Meanwhile, the electrician and I continued our investigation, focusing on
the powerboat. We found a 12V wire lying on top of an AC wire, which had
gotten hot enough to melt its own insulation and that of the hot (black) AC
wire. This put 120V AC into the entire ground system of the boat, including
the engines and propellers. This, coupled with lack of an AC safety ground,
forced the voltage and electrical current into the surrounding water.
Freshwater is not a good electrical conductor; therefore the AC was unable
to reach ground at a sufficient current to potentially trip the breaker.
Because of its high salinity, the human body is a much better conductor of
electricity than freshwater. (Saltwater is more conductive than the human
body, which explains why electric shock deaths have not occurred in
saltwater.) As Lucas approached the ladder, he passed into the field of AC
current and, for a brief moment, completed the circuit to ground. His heart
was stopped instantly; the insidious path of electrical current took the
life of our son.
At first we considered this a freak accident—a unique set of circumstances
that just happened to us. But this event completely changed my life and my
focus. I was determined to understand how this could happen and to do
everything I could to keep it from happening again. I did not want anyone
else to suffer the pain we had suffered.  I, with the collaboration of my
business partner, wrote a couple articles for The American Boat and Yacht
Council (ABYC), describing the accident and the action that I have taken to
create public and professional awareness of the problem, to provide
education and a better understanding of the concepts involved, and to
encourage the following of the ABYC standards and the use of ground
fault-type devices onboard boats and in marinas.
I determined to enhance my own knowledge so that I would have a solid
understanding of the workings of AC currents in freshwater environments.
With Andy Tufts, my business partner, we have done that using many different
avenues, not the least of which was with ABYC. We are now both ABYC Master
Technicians. Also, the thrust of our marine business changed significantly
from emphasis primarily on sales to one concentrating on keeping boats
electrically safe using ABYC standards. Our business motto became “Safer
Boating Begins With A Safe Boat.” On-line, I also started checking out
freshwater drownings with the suspicion that many were possibly electrical
current related.



Many of you know of my crusade for electrical safety in marinas.  Below is a
story that again drives the point home on boat maintenance and swimming in
marinas.





[image: Image2]Much has happened in the years since and all of it good. The
awareness of “electric shock drowning” as a serious freshwater issue has
significantly increased. A USCG-funded ABYC grant implemented by Capt. David
Rifkin and James Shafer has greatly added to the understanding of how AC
current behaves in freshwater.
The truth is that most people electrically shocked in freshwater, unlike my
son, *are *drowned. This is because of skeletal muscle paralysis caused by
low levels of AC current using the body as part of its return path to its
source. This is what Sheryl experienced when she jumped into the water to
rescue Lucas. That she didn’t drown or get electrocuted was due to the
voltage gradient of the electrical current from its source. She entered the
water farther from the faulty boat leak than Lucas. Depending upon several
bodily factors, a range of say 15 to 30 milliamps (mA) of AC current will
create muscle paralysis, and the drowning of even good swimmers is the
result. An AC current flow of around 100 mA will put the heart into
fibrillation, and death will likely follow within seconds. This is a very
serious problem, but it is preventable.
First and foremost, no one should go in the water at a marina. Signs should
be posted on every pier warning people to stay out of the water. But, since
not everyone will read this article and since people often ignore signs, (as
happened in the case of 19-year-old girl in 2005), or may fall into the
water accidentally, the only certain cure is to have GFCI-type devices
installed on boats that would automatically interrupt the flow of
electricity in the case of a fault. There have been at least 60 needless
fatalities and 100 unwarranted casualties from freshwater electrically
induced faults. The solution in the future may be ELCI’s (see sidebar).
The unfortunate reality is that currently there is no post-mortem evidence
available to coroners to ascertain whether electricity was involved in a
drowning. Nor do most law enforcement personnel have the technical skills or
tools to investigate this type of accident. This lack of knowledge,
training, and tools leads to questions about how many deaths have occurred
due to faulty wiring on boats. Some time after Lucas’s death, two Multnomah
County River Deputies and I conducted a random sampling of 50 boats in three
freshwater marinas in the Portland area. We found 13 boats leaking
potentially lethal electrical current into the water. A ratio of 26 percent
of faulty boat wiring leads one to wonder if the number of reported
electrical deaths in freshwater is only the tip of the iceberg. If you have
any doubts about your boat, it should be inspected by an ABYC-certified
technician. Do not depend on an electrician with experience only on land.
Let’s boat safely and save lives.
For more information, contact Kevin Ritz: kevintritz at gmail.com.

*The Long-Term Solution: Equipment Leakage Circuit Interrupters (ELCi) *
Lucas’s death will not have been in vain if my efforts and involvement with
ABYC have played some small part in the creation of a new ABYC E-11 standard
that would require the installation of an Equipment Leakage Circuit
Interrupter (ELCI) device on boats (already required by code for land-based
damp environments such as bathrooms, kitchens, hot tubs, etc.). In our
situation, if the 120V AC ground wire had been bonded to the metal
components on the boat (i.e. the negative side of the battery), the
energizing of the 12V DC system with the 120V AC would have most likely
tripped off the shore power breaker, severing electrical current flow. Or,
if a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) breaker had been installed by
the marina ahead of the boat’s shore power, even 10 mA of current would have
tripped it off. So, bottom line—if the boat had been properly wired with an
ELCI device or the marina placed a GFCI in front of the shore power cord,
our son would still be alive today.
Once adopted and implemented on a vessel, the ELCI device, along with ABYC
E-11 compliance, coupled with other pertinent ABYC electrical standards,
will significantly reduce the odds of an electrically induced death because
of an onboard wiring problem. Following standards will not only keep people
on the boat electrically protected, but those in the water around the boat
will be safe as well. After the accident, GFCI breakers were installed on
each of the marina’s shore power distribution points. The only problem has
been with new people coming to the marina, who have tried to bypass the GFCI
because their boats have electrical faults and they’re tired of resetting
breakers.
My business partner and I did extensive research into this issue and have
conducted seminars for law enforcement personnel and local, national, and
international marine investigators. We also serve as a resource for several
agencies if there is a suspicion that electricity might be a factor in a
drowning. Our intent is to set up a website giving technical information on
the functioning of electrical currents in freshwater. If this information
had been available to us we would not be still grieving the loss of our son.
If my story doesn’t say anything else, understand that a relatively simple
fix could have prevented years of pain.

Original article published by: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/kritz.asp

What do I do before I enter the water at a marina?

1. Measure the water with a digital voltmeter at various points where I will
be in the water.  You will see mV levels of voltage unless you're in
distilled water. :-)  If youn see volts there is a problem.

2. Turn off the power at the dock that supplies boats in close proximity.
(Ask the owners first :-))

3. Check for voltage in the water with a meter again.

4. If all clear, enter the water.

In an emergency just don't jump in the water.  Stick a toe in.  A leg in.
Up to your waist before making a rescue.  Make sure you do not feel
electricity in the water.  There is already one person in peril, do not make
it two people.  No matter what you think, only 20mA of current flowing
through your body will paralyze your muscles.  That's 20 thousands of an
ampere.  A 60 watt light bulb uses 500 mA of current.  The point is it takes
very little current to kill you.

OK, I'm off the soapbox for the next six months.  Be safe and enjoy the
coming Summer.

Stan
"Our Little Amusement" #744
N36 01' 33" W114 46' 08"
"Optimists are people that just don't have all the facts"


-- 
Stan
"Our Little Amusement"
C320  #744
N 36 01' 33"
W 114 46' 08"
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