Thursday, August 21, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

STRIP ELECTROCUTION: Box shock seen prior in county

Brother of dead tourist says earlier incident provided ample warning

Don Randall, 77, points Wednesday to an electrical junction box that shocked him and his dog at Winchester Park last year. Police reports say there was a short circuit in the utility box. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Nearly 13 months before a Kentucky woman was electrocuted on the Strip, county officials investigated a similar incident in which an elderly man and his dog were shocked by a metal-covered electrical box.

On Wednesday, Don Randall, 77, said he was walking his dog at Winchester Park in July 2002 when his dog stepped on a cast iron lid of an in-ground electrical box.

Randall said his Doberman pinscher immediately started going into convulsions from an electrical shock.

"He was glued to it," Randall said.

Randall said when he pulled his dog off the box, he himself received a severe jolt from the electrical current.

The dog then bit Randall's thumb off.

"I wouldn't want to go through that again," Randall said.

Randall related his story a few days after Kentucky tourist Rebecca "Becky" Longhoffer, 39, was electrocuted when she stepped on an iron plate covering of a utility box during a rainstorm.

Longhoffer's brother, Fain Brooks of Louisville, said Randall's experience indicates to him that the county knew it had a potential problem with the boxes before his sister's death on Saturday.

"It should have been taken care of a year ago," Brooks said.

Attorneys who have sued the county and others on behalf of Randall said a simple grounding wire would have prevented the injuries.

"The wire itself is worth about 9 cents," said attorney Jan Paul Koch.

Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said the exact reason Longhoffer was electrocuted is still unclear and there is an ongoing investigation. Officials have previously theorized that wiring in the box might have gradually worn down over years and that a wayward electrical current may have found magnification in standing water from the storm.

In the incident involving Randall, police reports say there was a short circuit in the utility box, possibly because of a contractor's improper color coding of wires.

"It's premature to say that there are similarities between the two incidents," Pappa said. "All of the facts aren't in regarding the incident on the Strip."

Nonetheless, Pappa said, "We feel terrible that these things have happened."

Pappa said county leaders will go to the Clark County Commission Sept. 2 and discuss enhancing the inspection processes of the county's utility boxes. The county, which originally said it did not have the staffing to inspect the boxes, is now contemplating inspecting all of the 70,000 to 100,000 boxes in Clark County for potential dangers.

"People should feel free to walk down the sidewalk without fear of electrocution," Pappa said. "That's obvious on its face and it's something we take very seriously."

Pappa said authorities will examine the need to inspect the boxes while balancing the costs of such an endeavor.

Longhoffer was walking across an island at the intersection of Spring Mountain Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, near Treasure Island, when she was killed. Authorities said she stepped on the box and collapsed face-down in the puddle. The plate had been soaked by a heavy downpour.

Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for Clark County's Public Works Department, said preliminary information is that the metal ribs on the box were making contact with frayed underground wiring.

But, he said, "We still do not know what specifically caused this."

Shelton was quoted in Tuesday news accounts as saying he had never heard of anything like the event that killed Longhoffer. When told of Randall's injuries Wednesday by the Review-Journal, Shelton said he had never been briefed on the earlier incident.

Randall said the event unfolded while walking his dog shortly after 7 a.m. The box that shocked Randall and his dog is located in grass watered by an overnight sprinkler system.

The box is also situated just a few feet from a children's playground at the park on the Pecos-McLeod Interconnect, near Desert Inn Road.

A report from Clark County park police says Randall and his dog were exposed to current from three 480-volt lines and one 120-volt line.

Randall said his thumb was reattached during surgery and his dog, named Red Baron, has since recovered.

"It's indescribable," said Randall, who is a World War II Navy veteran.

"I had two ships knocked out from underneath me in the war, and that was nothing," he said.

The park police report says an electrician made a visual inspection of the area in Winchester Park "and concluded there was some type of short circuit to the underground electrical junction box."

"The underground electrical junction box had become pinched between the steel cover and the underground conduit, causing a short circuit against the metal cover," the report states.

The report goes on to state the contractor, Tovar Landscaping, "had improperly color coded the electrical wires." A woman who answered the phone at Tovar Wednesday said that representation is not true.

Randall is suing county Parks and Recreation, Tovar, and an entity referred to in online court documents as Denton Electric Inc.

A phone call made to Denton Electric after normal business hours Wednesday was not immediately returned. A man believed to be the owner of the business could not be reached immediately at a residential phone number.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said if the county can't inspect the boxes, police and firefighters could be trained on how to inspect them, then assist in the process.

"We can't have people killed walking down the street," Young said.

Longhoffer's brother said a civil lawsuit is on its way in the death of his sister. Her funeral will take place in Kentucky this weekend.

Review-Journal writer J.M. Kalil contributed to this report.