You're driving home in the rain. Wet road, headlights, one quick swerve. You clip a utility pole. The airbag's down. You're shaken, but you're okay. Then something heavy drops onto the roof. A power line. Do you stay in, or get out? I'm Dale. Lineworker, 30 years. Right now your hand is already on that door handle. And that instinct right there is the danger. Everyone believes the same thing: after a crash, getting out fast is the safe move.

Safe Electricity puts it plainly. After a crash with a power pole, the safest place is often inside your car. Inside, you're not touching the ground. Step out, and your body becomes the path the electricity wants to take. Treat two things as live: the wire, and your own car. ESFI says assume both are dangerous. The ground, too. A downed line can energize the ground up to 35 feet away. Further when it's wet.

Picture ripples in a pond. Each ring is a different voltage, dropping as you move out. Here's the thing. No sparks, no movement, no hum — the wire looks finished. It isn't. Lines don't always show signs they're live, and they're just as lethal when they look dead. So nobody gets close. Not you, not a neighbour, not a passerby who wants to help. 35 feet. About three car lengths. That's the bubble around the car and the line.

Wire on your roof, rain coming down. Here's your order of operations. One: stay in the vehicle. Assume the line and the car are both live. Two: call 911. Tell them a power line is down on or near your car. Three: through the window, warn everyone to stay 35 feet back — from the car, the line, and anything touching it. Three car lengths. Shout it through the glass. Don't open the door to say it. Four: wait until a utility professional tells you it's safe.

Not the police. Not the tow truck. Five, the one exception: fire or smoke. Then you get out immediately. But you never step down — you jump. Six: jump clear. Never touch the car and the ground at the same time. Land with both feet together. Seven: shuffle away, feet together, never lifting them, at least 35 feet. Further if it's wet. Run, and one foot lands in one ring, the other in a different one.

Now you're the circuit. Feet together means no voltage difference between them for current to flow. Once clear, keep others back — and don't go back for anything. Does wet pavement change anything? Yes. Wet conditions carry it further, so you move further out. Is grass safer than dry asphalt? These sources don't rank surfaces. They treat all the ground near the line as energized, whatever it's made of.

Someone runs up to help? Yell it: stay back 35 feet, touch nothing, call 911. And never try to move a line. Even a branch that's usually non-conductive won't save them. Just driving past? Don't get close, don't drive over the wire, and never through water that's touching it. So: stay in, call 911, wave everyone back 35 feet, wait for the utility crew. And only if there's fire: jump clear, feet together, shuffle away.

Your car can sit still all night. So can you. Let the crew kill the power first.