Coroner Blames Snail For Teenage Girl's Death

Originally posted by nonetruegod
this is terrible i think it is now time to ban all snail/slug type creatures before the kill anyone else with their disregard for human life, very sad but s"!t happens and always will.

SHHHH They will hear you...





But yeah I can see a slime trail doing that to a circuit board. Cockroaches can do that too... they leave so much crud in circuits that the burn out. Used to get them in motion detectors that were not sealed... Spiders too.. those sticky webs can damage electronics in a damp climate

reply to post by apodictic


The southern United States has fire ants and Raspberry ants that love to invade electronic devices. The chew wires and their bodies can bridge circuits causing shorts. A regular pain for telecom, internet and traffic control devices down here.

nah mate NSW

Just from doing work around my house I've found all manner of bugs in sealed electrical boxes so I definitely believe it's possible.

I am concerned that this sound's vaguely like a story HP Lovecraft wrote. It doesn't actually say they found the snail, just the slime... hmmm?

Seriously there really should be a fail-safe built into these that any malfunction causes all blinking yellows. It wouldn't be that hard, just a software code I'd imagine. I can find out for sure if anyone cares let me know.

Originally posted by Jinglelord

Seriously there really should be a fail-safe built into these that any malfunction causes all blinking yellows. It wouldn't be that hard, just a software code I'd imagine. I can find out for sure if anyone cares let me know.

Yeah I agree,I think it might even happen here in Australia. In Melbourne I have been through quite a few malfunctioning intersections where the yellow lights were all flashing but I don't know whether they were programmed to do so once the fault was reported or automated.

The best time was when it was absoloutely belting down torrential rain and from the comfort in my car I got to watch low-ranking police officers stand in what was the equivalent of a cold, ferrocious shower

yeh id say when the fault occurs they would have back up power making them flash yellow. if youre wondering why the back up power doesnt just make them run normally, its probably because theres not much point as it is only temporary and isnt worth the money or effort

Originally posted by Jinglelord
Seriously there really should be a fail-safe built into these that any malfunction causes all blinking yellows. It wouldn't be that hard, just a software code I'd imagine. I can find out for sure if anyone cares let me know.

Not sure if it had a fail-safe but even if it did, why would that be immune from the short-circuit created by snail slime?

Many circuit boards have a lacquer coating which unless the snail slime was corrosive to the lacquer, should help prevent such short circuiting.

So a couple of other ideas besides the flashing yellow would be to apply lacquer if it's not already there, or if it is already there, to add a new type of coating which is more snail-slime proof.

Of course the OTHER option is driver awareness..

What ever happened to watching the road? Making sure that despite the light, see if it is safe to proceed?

Slightly off topic but stuff found in computers.

Things found in computers.

Not the spiders! AHHHHHGG!!

More

freak event i would think but we don't have snails in Minn that i know of so who knows.. that's just freaky..

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by Jinglelord
Seriously there really should be a fail-safe built into these that any malfunction causes all blinking yellows. It wouldn't be that hard, just a software code I'd imagine. I can find out for sure if anyone cares let me know.

Not sure if it had a fail-safe but even if it did, why would that be immune from the short-circuit created by snail slime?

I'd say a redundant circuit board in a seperate location ie: another enclosed box further up the pole or a box within the box itself, sure it would double the cost of the circuit boards but that would be the option for immunity from such freak occurrences imo.

If they went to the extreme of making boxes within boxes because of such a "freak" accident like this one, because there are other problems that happen twice as often in several other circumstances, there would be boxes inside boxes everywhere. They don't put boxes over your normal domestic power outlets which have the potential to kill, its just common sense to be careful around them as we have been taught. I'm sure the positioning of the box was suitable as there are electrical standards set to where boards are put. It was just a freak accident

reply to post by Pirateofpsychonautics


I originally thought an extra box or board but as the other poster said that is indeed overkill. I think something as simple as a better physical board design (ie lacquered better) as mentioned already, but I still think the failsafe in the form of a simple toggle that brings all flashing yellows in the event of any kind of malfunction. I'm not an electrical engineer or board designer but I know this kind of thing has to be possible.

I'm an electrician and i have worked at power stations it is definitely possible. Some machines use the conductivity of the impurities in liquids like water to operate. For example there could be 2 bars submerged in water with a distance in between them, 1 bar live with electricity, but the thing making the circuit, is the electricity's ability to arc across the water to the other bar to make contact and complete the circuit. This can be used to vary the resistance by moving the bars further apart or closer together therefore increasing or decreasing the voltage. But depending on the distance of contacts, and therefore resistance, the electricity may or may not arc across. Machines worth several thousand dollars operate using this principal

This can be used to vary the resistance by moving the bars further apart or closer together therefore increasing or decreasing the current*.