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Man Works To Keep Others Safe After Daughter's Death

BALTIMORE (WJZ)  -- A local teen was electrocuted after touching a fence at an area ball park.  Now her father is on a crusade to make sure that never happens again.  Kelly McPherson has more.

Stray voltage is what you call it when an object--like a pole or a fence--becomes electrified because of nearby wires.  It can be deadly.

A former Baltimore Colt and his wife are on a mission to find stray voltage.

"This is what killed my daughter," said Anthony Green.

Four years ago, the Green's 14-year-old daughter, Deanna, died after touching a baseball field fence in Druid Hill Park.  It had sunk into the ground to touch an exposed wire; 227 volts electrocuted her.

"I don't want it to happen and that's why Bub and I are so intent on having the city address the issues," said Deanna's mom, Nancy Green.

They've found a New Jersey company that can detect objects that become electrified.

"There's nothing visible but there is electric field radiating off of them so this truck will sense that.  Sort of like a radio receiver would sense radio signals," said Power Survey Company owner Tom Catanese. 

A sound will indicate high voltage so that objects can be checked out.  If you touch a wire from the energized pole to a grounded metal manhole cover, you can see the electricity.  Putting a hand on those objects wouldn't necessarily electrocute someone.  The conidions would have to be just right--like simultaneously touching a grounded metal fence.

"You can't roll teh dice on it because we're living proof that it can happen," Green said.

The truck regularly checks other major cities, too.

In New York, "we typically find about 800 problems," Catanese said.

So far, the company says it's found between 300 and 400 in Baltimore. 

The Greens are taking that list to City Hall in the name of their daughter.

"She may not be here with us, but she's working today and as long as we have breath, we'll fight to have this addressed," said Nancy Green.

The mayor's office could not comment Tuesday night because the city could potentially be brought back into a lawsuit filed by the Greens.

Some repairs to electrical work has been done in city parks since Deanna's death.

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