Man gets serious shock after climbing atop Shinkansen bullet train in Yokohama

[cteno4]

YOKOHAMA -- A man was sent to hospital here on Nov. 15 after getting a

serious electric shock, igniting his clothes and falling some 3.5 meters

onto a Shinkansen bullet train track when he climbed on top of a train

at JR Shin-yokohama Station.

 

Tokaido Shinkansen Line Halted after Man Climbs on Top of Train gets Electrocuted

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/11/15/national/tokaido-shinkansen-line-halted-after-man-climbs-on-top-of-train-gets-electrocuted/

 

Man gets serious shock after climbing atop Shinkansen bullet train in Yokohama

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141115p2a00m0na008000c.html

[katoftw]

He is lucky only his clothes ignited and not the fuilds within his body.  No understanding what goes through their minds.

[kvp]

Most people think that if you don't touch the wires they won't shock you. The truth is that minimal distance depends on the voltage and shinkansen are running on the higest voltage in Japan. What would be safe for a DC commuter car is dangerous with the shinkansen. Riding on top is not really possible, since most shinkansen types use most of the loading gauge, especially near the overhead wires. This is why they have smaller pantographs, because the wire is as close to the cars as safely possible. Essentially this means there is no safe space on the roof of the cars to ride on and it's not possible to get between the cars, so the only safe space would be on and below the windscreens, where you can't really hold onto anything. (or by sitting on the uncovered couplers of coupled sets, but it's easy to get crushed by the two cab cars while they go through sharper, slower speed turnouts) Anyway, riding outside a shinkansen is not a fun thing and should be considered a seriously bad idea.

[miyakoji]

I wonder how much they'll bill him for this.

[cteno4]

No understanding what goes through their minds.

Well this guy, electricity!

[JR 500系]

Most people think that if you don't touch the wires they won't shock you. The truth is that minimal distance depends on the voltage and shinkansen are running on the higest voltage in Japan. What would be safe for a DC commuter car is dangerous with the shinkansen. Riding on top is not really possible, since most shinkansen types use most of the loading gauge, especially near the overhead wires. This is why they have smaller pantographs, because the wire is as close to the cars as safely possible. Essentially this means there is no safe space on the roof of the cars to ride on and it's not possible to get between the cars, so the only safe space would be on and below the windscreens, where you can't really hold onto anything. (or by sitting on the uncovered couplers of coupled sets, but it's easy to get crushed by the two cab cars while they go through sharper, slower speed turnouts) Anyway, riding outside a shinkansen is not a fun thing and should be considered a seriously bad idea.

 

Thank for the informative read!

 

But....

 

That's not what Wolverine thinks ~

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3JtV4og940

 

:)

[westfalen]

The closest we are allowed to get to our 25kv AC overhead in Brisbane is 3 metres.

[Kitayama]

I have seen a man commiting suicide climbing up our locomotive while we were eating Christmas buffet in the dining car. We were standing still at a station for a couple of hours (private oldtimer train). It was not fun to see, especially not for the train crew that tried to rescue him. He died in hospital. According to local media suffered the man from some sort of depression.

[marknewton]

Our overhead is only energised at 1500v but we're subject to the same restriction as you, Westfalen - no closer than 3 metres.

 

I too have seen a person kill themselves by deliberately coming into contact with the overhead. Very ugly business for all concerned.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

We are not allowed to climb above floor level of rolling stock on electrified tracks, there is a photo shown in training classes of a set of foot prints burnt into the top of a diesel loco, all that was left after a fireman climbed up to fill the radiator water at Roma St station in the early days of electrification.  In Japan though I've seen steam loco crew on the tender trimming coal under the wires on the Chichibu, a lesser voltage than us for sure but it would be still too close for comfort for me. 

[HantuBlauLOL]

Glad the Dutch gave our country (Indonesia) 1500VDC overhead wires.. Im wondering how many dead guys already if they gave us 25KV AC overhead wires. :D

[marknewton]

In Japan though I've seen steam loco crew on the tender trimming coal under the wires on the Chichibu, a lesser voltage than us for sure but it would be still too close for comfort for me.

I've done that a few times myself, back when running steam engines was a bit more relaxed than it is now. Still a bit nerve-wracking though, and crouching down to stay away from the contact wire isn't very comfortable.

 

Then one day we were chatting to the perway boys at Roberston, and the subject came up. The ganger wandered off and came back holding a couple of tools that looked like deformed shovels. He called them pelican picks, and told us they were used for shifting ballast when tamping by hand. He gave them to us, and we found they were ideal for pulling the coal forward with much less effort than using a normal shovel. The long handles made it easy to use them while standing safely on the shovelling plate.

 

Needless to say we were very grateful for the gift, and we made sure we bought the boys a beer or three next time we had lunch at the Robbo pub. :)

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[E6系]

Glad the Dutch gave our country (Indonesia) 1500VDC overhead wires.. Im wondering how many dead guys already if they gave us 25KV AC overhead wires. :D

 

Hello,

 

I regret to inform you that it may not make any difference.  It's the Amperage that kills you.

 

Electricity is measured in terms of amperage, voltage, and wattage. Amperage (amps for short) is a measure of the AMOUNT of electricity used. Voltage (volts) measures the pressure, or FORCE, of electricity. The amps multiplied by the volts gives you the wattage (watts), a measure of the WORK that electricity does per second.

 

Briefly, trains draw hundreds of amps, while just 1/10th of an amp can be lethal.

 

Explained here: https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html

[miyakoji]

I remember watching the ammeter of a 221 series as it departed Osaka on a Yamatoji service, I think it pulled something in the low 400s, while VDC dropped to around 1200 or so.

[cteno4]

The correct voltage at low average delivered in just the right way can easily kill you as well with not a lot of burns or physical damage by disrupting heart contractions and basically giving you a heart attack. We use to run some electrophoretic gels at just the right volt/amps that there was a significant danger that I'd you stuck your fingers of both hands into the two polar tanks it could do this. About once a year we would here of someone at a university doing this in the early days when folks had rigged up rather home made setups. Later they were built so that the contacts were built into the lids to the tanks so there was no way to accidentally touch the electrophoresis fluid (salt solution that makes a great conductor to your skin!) while there was power applied.

 

Electricty is fickle when going thru a body, depends a lot on conditions on what currents path will be and thus the damage will be, but at train volt/amps it's very lethal regardless! Higher voltage systems do have the capacity to arc further in the air, thus why you need to keep further back to avoid being a grounding point!

 

I survived a very brief encounter with a 400amp 440v jolt with no major damage. Luckily my contact happened in such a way only one finger hit a line while moving fast and my ground was not super great. Nice burn from my finger up my arm and a totally dead am for a half hour... But maybe explains a lot of other things about me! One small change in conditions and I could have been a brickette...

 

Cheers

 

Jeff