I-Team Exclusive: City Worker Hospitalized, Suffering Electric Shock From Light Pole
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A CBS 3 I-Team Exclusive Report reveals a city worker was treated for non-life threatening injuries at Hahnemann Hospital after being jolted with electricity when he came into contact with an overhead light pole in the 2000 block of Appletree Street just after 8:30 Tuesday morning.
Investigative reporter Walt Hunter found that the unidentified Streets Department worker was collecting trash on the block when a metal can he was holding touched the light pole, shocking him.
Local 427 President Charles Carrington, who was on the scene, told Hunter "He got a jolt through his whole body."
Police, who rushed to the scene, sealed off the pole with yellow tape until a PECO crew could disconnect the wires.
A nearby worker says, "That could've been a kid with a bike."
PECO officials declined comment on how the pole became energized, explaining that city officials have responsibility for the poles.
In an email response to CBS 3, a Streets Department spokesperson stated, in part, "We suspect this was a defect in the aging high pressure sodium (HPS) light fixture. These are typically 240 bolts."
The spokesperson adding that in the past decade the department has replaced more than 5,700 aluminum poles with non-conductive fiberglass poles, but more than 6,000 metal poles remain.
The worker has been released from the hospital.
