This is why the Times policy of limiting certain articles to Times Select subscribers is disturbing. I’m going to write now about an actual life-and- death issue for New Yorkers, but can’t link to it because of their restrictions. We regard the following excerpt as within the scope of the “fair use” doctrine of the copyright laws.
And here’s a link to Behind the Times (Subscripton Wall), and a link to the Dwyer piece. Here’s a piece:
At the corner of Hudson and Morton Streets, he called her from a pay phone.
“Hello,” she said.
Something jolted Mr. Vanaria’s elbow. Then it shot into his arm. Waves of pain ran along his arm. He nested the phone on his left shoulder, cranked his ear down.
“I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack,’ ” he recalled this week.
He was just about to turn 47, the hour of life when the body becomes a permanent suspect in acts of treachery. To calm himself, Mr. Vanaria reached for one of the posts next to the phone, and gripped it. He screamed. Someone was shooting him dead, a machine gun, it was the tail end of an era of drive-by killings, he was being riddled with bullets. He looked into the street to see his murderers.
No car. No gunmen. No one.
Then he realized that he could not let go of the post. Panic and pain ripped through his body. His arm fought with his fingers, which were locked onto the post by an invisible force. He unclenched his grip and pulled away.
A man stood nearby. “What’s happening?” he asked Mr. Vanaria.
“You don’t understand,” Mr. Vanaria said. “I was being electrocuted.”
– snip –
He had, he learned, suffered a brain injury. He had literally been fried.
“Those first five years were really, really dark,” Mr. Vanaria said. “I wouldn’t call it attention deficit. It was a collision of thoughts, like a car crash.”
He had to give up his job teaching third graders at a parochial school. He stopped dancing in clubs. He used to draw, but felt that his sense of shape and color had seeped away.
He sued Con Edison, which, it turned out, had installed a high-voltage vault beneath the pay phone at Hudson and Morton Streets. The utility had put a pump in the vault to clear water out; the pump burned out, but because it was not equipped with a circuit breaker or a fuse, electricity passed to the pump, then to a drain pipe, a metal grate, up to the telephone and into Philip Vanaria’s body and brain.
There was no question that Con Edison had been negligent, a judge found; only the amount of damages was at issue. The jury awarded Mr. Vanaria $1.9 million. The circuit breaker would have been a few dollars.
Here are some questions whose answers might be helpful:
- Who tracks these injuries and deaths?
- How do we detect this problem on our own?
- What’s our risk here? Is this a acceptable level?
This subject will bear some further inquiries. Please check back. [Cross-posted at www.catonavenue.com and www.catonstratford.com