Posted on 02/01/2006 12:19:25 AM PST by 1ofmanyfree
(KSDK) - St. Louis radio personality Paul Arca was injured Saturday afternoon when the KLOU-FM van he was riding in came into contact with overhead power lines outside the Embassy Suites Hotel in St. Charles.
It happened after a remote broadcast from the Greater St. Louis Golf Show at the St. Charles Convention Center after someone failed to lower the broadcast mast on top of the van before driving off.
Sources tell NewsChannel 5 a 22-year-old woman who works in promotions for parent company Clear Channel Communications was driving the van. The van was destroyed by fire.
Officials at St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles confirm 56-year-old Paul Arca was being evaluated. Late Saturday, they said he was in good condition.
St. Charles Fire Chief Mike Grzyb said, "If you would happen to be in the unfortunate circumstance to be in an energized electrical vehicle, you should do is jump from the vehicle. It's safest to just remain in the vehicle but unfortunately a small fire started in the vehicle when the people were in it. So they needed to remove themselves from it. The safest way to do that is to jump from the vehicle. One of the occupants probably suffered a shock when he jumped from the vehicle. One of them was transported to the hospital and the other declined any medical services."
Although in this case someone failed to lower the mast before driving away, there are cases where television crews are electrocuted after extending the mast on top of a live truck while too close to power lines.
Power was knocked out to the Embassy Suites Hotel, other nearby businesses and a residential section in that area of St. Charles Saturday.
Power has since been restored to the affected areas.
KSDK
prisoner6
I award second place to the guy at a northern Illinois station who forgot to lower the mast before driving off. He was reminded of his error at the first underpass.
LOL, It has gotten worse since the FCC relaxed the broadcast liscence requirements. Used to have to have a station engineer on duty at all times to supervise these folks. Progress.
Keep lookin' up!
1ofManyFRee
The broadcaster had burns on his arms and torso. The current came down the mast into the van where he was seated to get out of the rain. The driver went to move the van because of the rain and when asked about the mast, said "I forgot it"! Then, BLAM. The mast made contact. It erupted in a ball of plasma and fire under him and it blew him out the side doors! Dang-it,I hate when that happens!
Guess the driver decided to forget the mast, and arc a Arca.
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