An Accident Just Waiting to Happen!

The A-Clinic section certainly makes you think and we take a lot of notice of it, and learn more with each issue, as it is becoming a huge collection of knowledge shared by fellow caravanners. Unlike the print media it can't get "lost" and is there for instant retrieval when and if required. Last month a contributor advised us of the importance of checking electrical leads, otherwise earth leakage detectors may not work in some circumstances. The month before in Show and Tell, Keith Thomas advised us of new sockets available in parks making connection even safer. In Queensland we have yet to see one of the new connections, but we live in hope! As a result of new knowledge gained from these pages we have adjusted our own routine for hooking up to power. We no longer assume that parks are correctly wired for safety. It takes a few seconds to plug in the "tester". If we don't get two red lights we try another power point or another pole. Despite our "new" procedures we were only inches away from electrocution! 

Look at the picture on the right closely and you will see a piece of metal sticking out of the socket. Yes it is a broken plug pin poking out there, and it is under one of those "mushroom" type power poles making it very hard to spot! This particular pole had no earth leakage detector fitted and a leaking water tap with no sullage drain, kept the ground at the base continuously damp -a perfect conductor if you happened to touch the pin and were bare foot.  The photo above left shows an ELCB and separate overload breakers on the one pole. Believe it or not, this was in the SAME park and the poles were 50 metres apart. Don't forget if you test your own van ELCB you may trip the one on the park pole as well. This will also shed power to any other user connected to the pole so pop it back on SAP and pray no neighbours were using a computer!

The "iffy" pole is on the right and a much newer one in the SAME park is on the left.

The two boards shown are very safe and state of the art. We prefer this type as you easily see what you are doing and if switches etc. are on or off. 

We photographed this ELCB at Crows Nest Caravan Park near Toowoomba Qld. This one works on all three phases. It was so sensitive it tripped when we tested our ELCB in the van.