Hopefully they died in pleasure!
I don't really understand that - one can't have it both ways. If a current high enough to be fatal flowed through the victim to somewhere (some route to earth, wherever) other than the N of the circuit, then if there had been a functional RCD protecting the circuit, it should have operated.
That RCD could be of any rating though, not necessarily one which would prevent death.
Sure - but in context, one assumes that RF was referring to a 30mA one. I don't think we actually know that there was any RCD at all and, even if there were a 30mA one, and it has operated, that obviously would not be guaranteed to "prevent death".
Quite so. That's why the first question I asked was about what else she touched, in addition to the tap(s) - but no-one seems to know.
Fair enough - but,of course, as mfarrow implied, if an RCD was there because it was a TT installation, then it would probably be 100mA, and quite possibly also time-delayed, so would give very limited protection against injury/death.
They would - and they may be right, at least sometimes! The theoretical basis for RCDs having the potential to 'save lives' is obviously not in dispute. How often (if ever!) they actually have done so is, and will probably remain, unknown!
Exactly - that was my very point. 100mA RCDs, let alone TD ones, were never intended to offer significant protection to people who received shocks. They do, of course, potentially prevent shocks from occurring in the first place, by disconnecting the supply should exposed-c-ps become 'live' due to 'L-E' faults.
All true - but it's not only deaths due to falling off ladders that a 30mA may fail to prevent. Even in the absence of any consequential trauma, a 30mA RCD is by no means guaranteed to prevent death, particularly in susceptible individuals.
It sounds as if you are subscribing to the 'common misapprehension' that a 10mA RCD is appreciably more likely to 'save lives' than is a 30mA one. Very few people (except the highly susceptible') would die as a result of a current between 10mA and 30mA, and it is only for the tiny number of exceptions to that rule that a lower (than 30mA) IΔn would make much difference. The sort of full-blown L-E shocks that are likely to kill will usually involve shock currents well in excess of 100mA - and a 30mA RCD will trip almost as quickly at such a current as would a 10mA one.
I can't tell you about 'last year'. The most recent figures you often see cited here come from ESC (easily Googled). They report, for 2010, a total of 28 UK deaths due to electrocution, 6 'work-related' and 22 'home/leisure' - and it's more-or-less inconceivable that all, or even most, of those 22 were due to 'faulty household electrics'. They also report, for 2011/2012, 25 deaths due to fires which were attributed to 'electrical faults' - but, as we've discussed before, there is a feeling that 'electrical fault' may be sometimes/often be used as a scapegoat for fires 'of otherwise no known cause'.
It appears that there were 27 UK deaths recorded as being due to electrocution in 2002 (pre-Part P) as compared with 28 in 2010/11 (5-6 years post-Part P).
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