Is It Safe to Touch Metal Inside Your Car if a Transmission Line Falls on It?

[Danger]

As the OP reading all the posts so far, I'm still confused. I have a few more questions:

1) So is it possible to touch nothing but plastic inside the car and still get lethally electrocuted?

2) If such a person does get lethally electrocuted in such a scenario, would death be instantaneous? If it's non-lethal, would it just burn his hand and not damage his neurons or his spinal cord?

3) Just how is it possible to leap out of a car without opening the door? Say you pull the doorwindow down, and then grab the window to assist yourself leaping out. Could you get electrocuted by touching the glass?

4) Could static from the downed transmission line or the Faraday cage-like car interfere/block cell phone radio signals?

5) What does it mean to say there could be a circuit between the car and the ground (asphalt)? Asphalt isn't a metal. If instead you're on a dirt road, then could a circuit still happen?

I'm just going to address your questions by number, rather than split your post into mutiple quotes.
1) Anything is possible, so stay on the safe side and don't touch plastic either. Some parts are pretty much guaranteed to be safe, such as A/C vents, but why take a chance?
2) A lucky electrocution results in burns to the entry and exit points. A lethal one usually means that the currant went through the heart and shut if off.
3) The idea is not to exit the car without opening the door. The door is not a problem. What you have to do is get out of the car without touching it and the ground at the same time. Open the door fully, then jump as if you'd been sitting on dynamite.
4) An electrical dude will have to answer that one. I've never heard of a static charge being involved in a downed power line situation.
5) Asphalt counts as ground under enough conditions that one can't consider it to be safe. While it can be insulative, I personally wouldn't count upon it. I'll leave that up to more knowledgeable folks to answer

edit: I wasn't ignoring you, Krd... you sneaked in while I was composing.

 

[cosmik debris]

A safety video we show the students here is of a high tension line falling across a car (33kV I think), the tyres on the car melt fairly quickly.

 

[pgardn]

As the OP reading all the posts so far, I'm still confused. I have a few more questions:

1) So is it possible to touch nothing but plastic inside the car and still get lethally electrocuted?

2) If such a person does get lethally electrocuted in such a scenario, would death be instantaneous? If it's non-lethal, would it just burn his hand and not damage his neurons or his spinal cord?

3) Just how is it possible to leap out of a car without opening the door? Say you pull the doorwindow down, and then grab the window to assist yourself leaping out. Could you get electrocuted by touching the glass?

4) Could static from the downed transmission line or the Faraday cage-like car interfere/block cell phone radio signals?

5) What does it mean to say there could be a circuit between the car and the ground (asphalt)? Asphalt isn't a metal. If instead you're on a dirt road, then could a circuit still happen?

I am going to give #2 non lethal scenario consideration:

It is possible the current could flow right over your skin and not into muscle and tissue. Because muscle is composed of a good amount of salty water, its a good conductor. But I have see situations where people have had current flow almost entirely on the outside most likley because their skin was moist and salty and they might have had a decent layer of fat (not a good conductor) under their skin. Its very hard to predict exactly what path the current will take through the body.

I also had a roofer redo my roof after hail. He had a big chunk of his calf missing. It looked like a shark bite, but on closer inspection it was not. (I actually know a kid who got a bite from a bull shark, a bad bite, so I know what they look like). I asked the roofer what had happened before he went to work on my house. He said he was struck by lightning and the doc posited that the current entered through his shoulder, and exited to the roof and to ground through his calf. His shoulder was not badly burned. But his calf got so hot I think it sort of pressure boiled and blew out, at least that's what the doc thought. Did not stop his heart. He was awake during the event. It also did not blow out his eardrums or do nerve damage except to his missing calf meat.

Weird paths to ground, you never know...

 

[DaveC426913]

(I actually know a kid who got a bite from a bull shark, a bad bite, so I know what they look like).

Walking down a beach a few years ago, I encountered a young man carrying a dead fish about 18" long. I asked him what it was, and he told me it was a shark that had tried to eat him.

I was dubious, and it obviously showed on my face, because he turned on his heel to show me his calf, in which was a big, fresh shark bite.

 

[pgardn]

Walking down a beach a few years ago, I encountered a young man carrying a dead fish about 18" long. I asked him what it was, and he told me it was a shark that had tried to eat him.

I was dubious, and it obviously showed on my face, because he turned on his heel to show me his calf, in which was a big, fresh shark bite.

I kayak fish and surf fish quite a bit. I have some bull shark jaws from a big shark. The teeth on the top are triangular and sharp on the entire surface. The bottom teeth are just pointed. So when this shark bites, it holds (forks) with the bottom teeth, and "saws" with the top teeth (knifes). It was so apparent how this kid had been bitten when I matched the jaws up with his wounds, which were quite extensive. The shark had turned on its side to bite his calf and sawed and shook a bit and then let him go. Bull sharks lurk in very shallow water in Texas so they make a lot of contact with humans. I had one go after the fish on my stringer I had caught but I slapped at him with my rod tip and he left my fish alone. I then called it a day.

 

[NascentOxygen]

The shell of a vehicle is only an approximation to a Faraday shield. A few mm of plastic is next to useless as a barrier to electrocution when dealing with tens of thousands of volts. Vehicle tyres incorporate carbon in sufficient quantity as to make the rubber conductive so it leaks away static buildup (a cause for car sickness in some people). Even if the rubber didn't breakdown and become conductive, tens of kV across it would cause sufficient I²R heating to melt the tyre. Tyres incorporate steel wire and reinforcing, so really don't present many cm of insulation at the best of times.

You'll find that at high transmission voltages, soil is not an insulator; fallen lines strike sparks as they sweep over bare ground.

 

[pgardn]

You'll find that at high transmission voltages, soil is not an insulator; fallen lines strike sparks as they sweep over bare ground.

Especially if its wet.

And high winds, lightning and rain... they often accompany each other.

 

[DragonPetter]

If the car is metal and is connected to the ground I think that is a faraday cage. If it was me i would touch the inside for a bet and I would win.

I hope this is a joke. No one should be making bets on safety when there are many unknown variables, no matter how informed someone is. That would be the dunning-kreuger effect in the worst light.

 

[Dale]

If a transmission line falls on a car in the middle of a forest with no one around to see, does it make a spark?