# Downed power lines
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 1, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820 "2011-09-01T03:24:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/41 "2011-09-02T15:12:10Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> If a hot line is draped over your car, can you drive out from under it without bodily risk? I would guess so, because the outside of the car would complete any circuit, as a Faraday cage, and besides most of what the driver touches is pretty insulative. This might be safer than staying still in the car, given that outside conditions could change. Anybody have good enough information to act on?
Your best bet is still to stay put and call 911. They will contact the power company.
With any down lines remember you cannot rely on SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL, or TOUCH to tell you if a line is powered.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/42 "2011-09-02T16:47:32Z")
Thanks for the support from others in this thread. I was somewhat flippant in my response but I wanted to get the attention of the non-technical people.
The op stated that he wasn’t sure why the power line conductors were not (sheathed) insulated and my response was meant to show that the location and connection of the power lines were made in such a way as to use air to accomplish the same purpose.
I admitted my aversion to the usage was a nitpick and my goal wasn’t to convert the world to technical jargon users but to explain how the system worked.
I’m OK if you want to go on calling it non-insulated as long as you understand the mechanism which is used to keep it from causing harm.
After all, I’m pretty sure that I bug the hell out of zoologists when I say, “But if I call it a buffalo and you STILL understand that I’m referring to a bison, what’s the difference?” 🙂
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### Author:  [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/43 "2011-09-02T17:02:21Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Oh, and to fully answer the OP’s question, the “why not” is because it would cost too much to insulate all of those wires. They only do it when necessary.
Also the high voltage would degrade the insulation rather quickly and the wires would have to be replaced
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### Author:  [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/44 "2011-09-02T19:02:53Z")
> [@Gedd](#):
>
> Your best bet is still to stay put and call 911. They will contact the power company.
>
> With any down lines remember you cannot rely on SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL, or TOUCH to tell you if a line is powered.
FWIW, “TASTE” is not included because, you know, how else do you check out a 9V battery?
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/45 "2011-09-02T20:06:31Z")
During the last ice storm we had here, maybe six years ago, I walked to class (which good lord should have been cancelled) past a downed power line that was, no kidding, writhing and sparking on the ground. Somebody had helpfully put two orange cones by it.
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### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downed-power-lines/594820/46 "2011-09-02T20:17:55Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> When power lines come down during storms, why don’t the damn things spark like crazy and cause all kinds of fires? Or do they?
The wires don’t even have to come down to cause a fire. [Video of a tree being blown into live wires and being set on fire.](http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8f2_1254802303)
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