TEMPE, AZ — Monsoon season brings a danger that can turn deadly in seconds: downed power lines.
It's a scenario most drivers never think about until it happens: A storm rolls through. A power line falls on your car. What do you do?
Salt River Project invited ABC15 to its Tempe Service Center near Kyrene and Elliot roads for a hands-on demonstration. What crews showed us goes against every instinct you may have.
Monsoon downbursts can produce 60 to 70 mph gusts with little warning. Those winds can snap power poles, dropping live wires onto the road and sometimes onto vehicles.
If that happens to you, SRP says the safest place to be is exactly where you are.
"The safest thing you can do is stay in the vehicle," said Clint Bragg, a senior safety specialist with SRP. "The vehicle is insulated with the tires on the road, so it's going to protect you."
Stay inside and call 911. SRP crews respond first, and their first job is to cut the power.
There is one exception. If your car catches fire or you see smoke, you need to get out. But how you exit matters.
"You want to jump from the vehicle," Bragg said. "Not as far as you can. Just far enough so you're not still touching the vehicle."
Then keep your feet together and hop.
Do you have a concern in your community or a news tip? We want to hear from you!
Connect with us: share@abc15.com
"You're going to want to bunny hop until you get about 30 feet away," Bragg said. "Then you can walk to safety."
Electricity spreads through the ground like ripples in water. Each ripple carries a different voltage. Separate your feet, and the current finds a path. That path is your body.
The same physics explains a warning that surprises many parents: never hold a child's hand while escaping a downed line.
"Kids want you to hold their hands when they feel scared," Bragg said. "That will create a circuit through your children to you, and you don't want that."
Instead, make it a game. A bunny hop. A shuffle. Whatever keeps their feet together could save their lives and yours.
There is one last thing SRP wants every driver to remember: A downed power line can look completely dead, but it rarely is. Live wires almost never spark the way they do in the movies.
If you come across a downed line on foot, stay back at least 100 feet and assume it's still energized.
