COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A 9-year-old boy was electrocuted on a downtown bridge because a lamppost was not grounded and its wires were not properly insulated, investigators said Wednesday.
Willie Wagner had been walking home from a museum with a friend May 22 when he squeezed between the light pole and a chain-link fence.
When he touched both, the voltage jumped from the pole through his body to the fence, said John Loud, an investigator hired by the city.
Loud found that insulation on a 480-volt wire had not been properly wrapped with electrical tape. That caused the base of the lamppost to become charged. If the pole had been properly grounded, a fuse would have blown, cutting the power to the pole.