Geocaching Electrical Safety No-No's

DISCLAIMER

(updated Sept 24/10)
Here are some examples of where you should NOT hide geocaches because of the danger of electricity.



Power transmission tower legs are private property and are not meant for anyone to hide geocaches on them.





Please don't hide geocaches on power boxes. The outside of the box is usually safe but is not meant to be played on. Like everything else, equipment does fail and you do not want to be anywhere around this equipment when it does fail.
Also, never open an electrical box, of any kind. If you find an electrical box open please contact the local power utility immediatly. Again, this is private property and hiding a geocache on this type of equipment without permission is going against the Geocaching.com guidelines. I don't know of a power utility company that would okay a game piece on any of their electrical equipment.



Stay away from outdoor metering equipment. My issue here is that I don't want kids getting comfortable playing around electrical equipment. (ie... a cover/lid is left open by a vandel and a kid reaches into an energized panel because they're "used to" this equipment and gets fatally shocked.)Also, this equipments fails as well.






























How about placing a micro under a lamp post skirt? Do you think that's safe? Electrical street lighting can fail just like all the other equipment. It's not a smart place to geocache.(link)

A geocache placed inside the opening of a lamp post is a very serious safety concern and should NEVER be created. This type really scares me because of the live electrical wiring that's just inside the opening. There is a high risk of a severe electrical shock with this type of scenario. If a cache is found inside a lamp post, please contact a Geocache.com reviewer to have the cache archived and the local utility company to close the lamp post opening properly.


Never enter a substation. They're extremely dangerous.



***Remember, you can't always hear, see or smell electricity. It's an invisable DANGER.***

If you feel a geocache is placed in a dangerous location, please contact the cache owner. If you get no response from the cache owner then email a Geocach.com Admin who approve's caches.
I've had many people email me saying that they had a bunch of caches archived because of an electrical danger.

I believe geocaching was meant more for the woods and safe urban settings, not power equipment.
We have so many other places we can hide our geocaches. Let's stay away from electrical equipment.

Thanks for visiting my blog and feel free to add comments,

Johnnygeo