LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — Investigators say a breaker that kept tripping was a sign of wiring trouble, in the minutes before an Illinois man was electrocuted while swimming near a dock at the 22.2 Mile Marker, down Highway KK, on June 21.
Marcus Colburn died on Sunday night, after he and fellow swimmer Taylor Curley felt electricity in the water and Colburn grabbed a dock ladder to get out. Curley sustained minor injuries.
Since then, an investigative team says it has ascertained the source of the problem.
Read more about the incident:
LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — A 21-year-old man was killed on Sunday night when, according to au…
The team consisted of Osage Beach Fire Chief Dorhauer and Fire Marshal Nicholson, Ameren Shoreline Management Supervisor Jeff Green, Ameren Supervising Engineer David Hagan, Water Patrol director for the MSHP Captain Matt Walz, and certified electrician Mark Beaubout.
In the investigative report, the team says the occupants of the house had noticed an issue with the breaker serving the dock electricity. The breaker reportedly would stay on for about 10–15 seconds and then would trip. Investigators say the occupants reported the problem to the homeowner.
On June 21, according to the report, while the victims swam near the dock, some of the home occupants were again attempting to reset the breaker. It was then that the victims felt the current in the water.
On the day following the incident, investigators located a junction box under the deck of the house, which fed power from the home’s breaker panel to the disconnect at the shoreline. That box housed the problem, but the issue was not immediately obvious.
They noted the box had been visually inspected on May 30, 2014 and October 30, 2014, but the box had not been opened. The investigative report pointed out that the inspection checklist for that type of junction box would have simply required the box be checked to ensure it was weatherproof “or approved method per [authority having jurisdiction].” The reported said a visual inspection of the box would not have indicated a problem; only once the conductors were removed from the box, investigators say there was “clear evidence that hot and the ground conductors had been arcing.”
The specific reason for the arcing was not given, and the investigative report did not indicate that the issue was due to any previous work done on the junction box.
The arcing was sending power from the hot wire (coming from the main home panel) to the ground wire. That ground wire was tied to a ground rod at the shoreline. The same rod was being used to ground the dock. So, investigators explained, the power was coming through the ground wire via the arcing point in the junction box, to the ground rod, and then through the ground wire to the dock.
The report explained that was the reason the breaker for the dock electric kept tripping. It stated, “The circuit breaker and system operated as designed. The short circuit was breaking the circuit from the arcing at the junction box.”
But during those 10–15 seconds that occupants had said the breaker was staying on, before tripping again, the energized dock was sending voltage into the water, according to the report. It was in those seconds that Marcus Colburn and Taylor Curley felt electricity in the water and Colburn took hold of the dock ladder.
The cause of death has still not officially been determined as electrocution.
