Editorial: Reaction to Strip death was terrible

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

A 39-year-old mother of four, a tourist from Kentucky, was electrocuted Saturday night as she strolled the Strip during a rainstorm. Near the intersection with Spring Mountain Road, she stepped on a metal grate covering a utility box and immediately fell. A passerby pulled the woman off the grate and felt electric shocks himself, even though he was using his belt. The rain and her open-toed shoes contributed to the woman's death, which authorities blame mostly on wires with worn insulation touching the underside of the grate. This was a freak accident but one that could obviously be repeated, as Strip sidewalks are dotted with such grates. Obviously, the other grates, no matter how many, had to be checked.

We were taken aback by the initial response -- likely motivated by frustration -- from the Clark County Public Works Department. "It was a tragedy. But we just don't have the manpower or the budget to take our maintenance workers off of their regular assignments to check every utility box," Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton told Sun reporter Mary Manning. Another statement made by Shelton, however, was simply outrageous. "If people are walking in the rain and they see a metal lid under a puddle -- after knowing what has happened -- they may want to avoid stepping on it."

Fortunately, Clark County officials decided later to inspect all the utility boxes on the Strip. In our view, every utility box in the valley -- and we know there are more than 70,000 of them -- should be put on a regular schedule for inspection. Additionally, the grates still in place that are made of iron should either be grounded or replaced with grates made of material that does not conduct electricity.

This is the type of response the Public Works department should have offered from the first moment after the tragedy. To talk of "lack of staff" and "lack of funding" following the death of a tourist is not an appropriate response. If preventing another tragedy in itself isn't enough motivation, the county should think of its liability. We can only imagine what that might be, if another such tragedy were to happen and the lawyer for the victim's relatives uncovered the county's excuses for doing nothing about the first one.