A contractor who installed a metal fence directly above live wires is to blame for the electrocution of a 14-year-old Randallstown girl, city officials said Wednesday.
Deanna Green was killed Friday while stretching during a Christian league softball game at Druid Hill Park. Several city agencies have been investigating the incident, said Connie Baker, director of the city?s Department of Recreation and Parks, and believe Deanna was electrocuted after touching a fence surrounding the field and a shorter fence in front of the players bench at the same time.
Baker said a company contracted to replace the shorter fence 20 to 30 years ago placed a pole directly above electrical wires powering the field lights. One pole extended about half an inch below a concrete barrier, Baker said, wearing down on the insulation of a hot wire and severing a ground wire over time.
When Deanna balanced herself while stretching ? placing one hand on the perimeter fence and one hand on the inside fence ? she acted as a conductor for the severed wire, sending at least 230 volts of electricity through her body, he said.
“It was like a perfect storm scenario,” Baker said. “All of the things that could go wrong ? she holding on to one fence and touching another ? did.”
He said he could only speculate that the company did not know the wires were there and said the city has not found a record of the company?s name, but added there is a “vault” of records to search. He said there is no maintenance checking of underground wires and will not plan to start them in light of the incident.
“There is no routine maintenance of underground cable unless they break,” Baker said. “They whole idea of putting them underground is to give them longevity.”
Baker saidcity electricians checked all fences and all lighted city-owned parks and have deemed them safe. Baltimore also has hired two independent contractors to verify the results of their own investigation starting Wednesday.
A spokesman for Deanna?s family declined to comment on the city?s report and said the family is grieving. Deanna?s funeral will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown.
