Klemick & Gampel Blog

Idaho Construction Worker Electrocuted

Thirty-eight-year-old Kenneth Donald Lahn was pronounced dead at St. Benedicts Family Medical Center in Jerome, Idaho after being electrocuted while working at a construction site, according to the Associated Press.

Jerome Police Officer Patrick Wilson said Lahn, of Kimberly, Idaho, was guiding cables of a crane operated by a co-worker when he swung the cables into a live power line. The electrical current traveled through the cables and crane before it was grounded through one of the legs that stabilized the crane, reported the AP.

The man who was operating the crane was not injured. Police ruled Lahn's death an accident.

According to Wikipedia, an electric shock can occur upon contact of a human's body with “any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current flow through muscles or hair.” The minimum current a human can feel is 1 milliampere. The current can cause tissue damage or fibrillation (rapid, irregular contraction of the heart’s muscle fibers) if high enough. The web site www.wrongdiagnosis.com reports death from electric current passing through the body can result from effects on the heart, severe external and/or internal burns or from other organ damage.

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