Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: 1996/02/09
Subject: Re: Hotel Electrocution

lzir...@aol.com (LZirlin) writes:

[ of the New Carrollton, Maryland Ramada Inn ]

> A young woman got caught in a rainstorm last summer and came into the
> Ramada soaking wet.  She went up to her room, inserted her magnetic key
> card, and due to faulty wiring, completed a circuit and was electrocuted.

The story was reported in the Washington Post on Tuesday, 27 June
1995.  Since that hotel was the venue of the Disclave science
fiction convention from 1984 to 1991, the Washington Science Fiction
Association was very interested in the story.  One of our members
checked with the county police, and got a somewhat more complete story
than the newspaper reported.

The hotel has exterior doors to the rooms that face into a central
courtyard with a swimming pool.  I do not know whether the woman had
been caught in rain or had been swimming: police reports that she was
barefoot suggest the latter.  The concrete walkway she was standing
on was wet, either from rain or from water leaking from a nearby air
conditioning condenser.  The air conditioner was improperly grounded,
electrifying the wet concrete, but her door's key-card lock was
grounded, with the described fatal results.

So while your story may be literally correct, it would be best to
rephrase it to avoid the incorrect inference that the faulty wiring
was in the door lock.

Dan                            posted and e-mailed.
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil