When your car comes in contact with a power line

If your car comes in contact with a power line, a state of panic may set in.  Try to stay calm and follow these tips:

• Remain inside your vehicle. If you are in your car, you are not part of the electricity’s path, which always looks for the shortest way to ground. Honk your horn to alert passersby.
• If someone stops to help, roll down the window and warn him or her not to touch the car or the power line. Ask that person to phone 911 and contact the local electric utility immediately.
• Wait in your car until qualified electrical workers turn the power off and tell you it’s safe to leave the car.
• If you have to leave the car because of fire or other danger, open the door and jump away from the vehicle so no part of your body touches the vehicle and the ground at the same time. Make sure to jump with both feet together so your feet land on the ground at the same time.
• After you land with both feet together, shuffle away, keeping both feet in contact with the ground constantly.
• Do not try to help someone from the vehicle. If you do, you may become a path for electricity and be injured or killed.

Source: National Weather Service

Photo courtesy of Texas Electric Cooperatives