Exclusive: Queens man ends up with live wires wrapped around his neck

QUEENS VILLAGE (WABC) -- In an Eyewitness News investigation, a Queens man received the shock of his life: live electrical wires wrapping around his neck.

How could it happen, and could you be at risk?

It's amazing he lived to tell his story. The electrical current went right through 61-year-old Kenneth Coward's body and out his ankle. He spoke exclusively with Eyewitness News.

Con Edison claims that dangling and dropping power lines are not a widespread problem, but critics don't buy that. One of them is a city bus driver who had just gotten off work and never knew what hit him until it was too late.

"When I got about here, that's when I saw the lines come down and wrap around me, said Coward.

A city bus driver, he had just gotten off work. He was riding his motorcycle along Springfield Blvd. in Queens Village on a beautiful day in early July.

"I felt something in my chest, something over here like a tingling, over here on my neck, Inside my chest it was like "ehh," like a buzz," said Coward.

"Did you know at that point that you'd been electrocuted?", we asked.

"I was kind of out of it because I hit my head when I went down," he said.

There was an electrical burn on his neck right after the accident. He says he just remembers the force, his bike going down and sliding...the live wires still around his neck.

"That's where it came out," said Coward.

A responding firefighter spotted the exit wound on Coward's ankle from the electrical current.

"The firefighter treating me at the time told me that if it hadn't exited, I definitely would have been dead. There was no doubt about it, I would have been dead," said Coward.

An FDNY incident report says electrical service at one home "was ripped from the house as a result of the downed wires. Con Ed arrived and assumed responsibility for all electrical hazards."

A utility spokesman says it had no reports of downed wires before Coward's accident, adding, "We are investigating and will review the motorcyclist's complaint in court." He is suing Con Ed.

"There's no such thing as a freak accident causing electrical wires to down and wrap themselves around a man's neck and electrocute him. There was no accident here. It was because these wires were poorly maintained," said attorney Bonita Zelman.

A transit authority insider told us that bus operators often complain about problems with live wires, especially in this section of Queens.

"The hotter it gets outside, the lower they hang," she said. "The wires get caught on the top of buses. This is a widespread problem. It's very dangerous."

Con Ed says it's had no records of prior complaints of low-hanging electric wires in the area dating back five years.

"We constantly contact Con Ed to tighten them up," the insider said. Coward has permanent burns, and now has an irregular heartbeat he blames on the shock.

"It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen at all. This is a wake-up call," he said. Coward, who also suffered a concussion, has been in and out of the hospital.