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Parents Push For New Rule That Requires Stray Voltage Inspection

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Some Baltimore parents are turning their grief into action, trying to change Maryland laws to prevent the kind of tragedy that killed their young daughter five years ago at Druid Hill Park.

Derek Valcourt has more on what her parents say needs to be done about it.

It was stray electrical voltage that killed their daughter in a ballpark at Druid Hill. Now they're asking the state to implement tough new stray voltage laws in their daughter's name.

Deanna Green was just 14 and getting ready to go to bat when she touched a metal fence at a ballfield at Druid Hill Park.

A decaying underground electrical wire made contact with one of the fence posts sending 227 volts of electricity through her body.

"To have your daughter fall into your arms and slip away at a softball game with just electrical current running through a fence, that's the thing we just can't got through our heads," said Nancy Arrington-Green.

What happened to Green is not an isolated problem. 

It begins when aging underground power lines begin to crack and decay near sidewalks, street lights, manhole covers and anywhere an electrical current flow.

Last month a WJZ investigation documented countless manhole covers, street lamps, curbs and sidewalks pulsing with potentially dangerous stray voltage.

That's why now, just days after what would have been their daughter's 19th birthday, the Greens came before the Maryland Public Service Commission asking the state to adopt a new law in their daughter's name.

The Deanna Camille Green Rule would require power companies to conduct twice a year surveys to detect stray voltage, mandate repairs get made within 45 days, and keep reports and records on discovered problems.

"The one thing no one should ever have to go through is what we've gone through," said Nancy Arrington-Green.

"What happened to our daughter was a breakdown in the infrastructure," said Anthony "Bubba" Green. "That's what killed her and so we want them to be able to go out and find it and repair it and maintain it."

Her parents are fighting for the Deanna Green Rule to be implemented in several other states, hoping they can eventually have it go nationwide.

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