[Olog-hai]

There is no such thing as a “jolt” of any voltage. Only current can kill, not electric potential; and current needs a path to the ground. Tasers are of higher voltage than the former New Haven Railroad, quite often more than quadruple (as much as octuple), but they do not kill due to where the current goes, i.e. not across the heart.

Third rail has an electric potential of 750 volts DC, but kills just as effectively due to the current that flows through the body when contact between it and the ground is initiated; and since it’s just a foot or two above the ground, that occurs far easier than with wires that are over 20 feet above the ground.

[Cvengr]

Perhaps what killed him was the arc flash. While we think of not touching the wire (conductor), even air can conduct electricity. Looking at the gif in post 12 above, the victim appears to have reached up with one hand, then the other to a HV conductor having both flashed and apparently vaporized his arms. In these cases, the arc-flash overcurrent is in the 10,000s of amps. The arc-flash alone produces temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun.