God damn people who are paid to write don’t know anything about the English language. Skirted is to go close by but not to touch so if they skirted the power lines it would have been scary for them and that’s about it.
“Skirted is to go close by but not to touch so if they skirted the power lines it would have been scary for them and that’s about it.”
Well..... maybe a little cleanup in the shorts as well.
You do not have to touch a power line to strike an arc. It depends on the voltage, but at 255 kv the distance is approximately 9 feet.
RIP.
https://www.osha.gov/dsg/mad_calculator/mad_calculator.html
During my electric utility experience I saw the light once, and talked with some crew who did shortly before I came upon them. Thanks to really fast protective circuitry, none of us was hurt. But a couple of the guys nearly set a new land speed record to get away from the 300 MW arc! It set green grass on fire at 120 feet distance!