KAITANGATA FATALITY

Evening Star, Issue 22452, 24 September 1936, Page 10

KAITANGATA FATALITY

. INQUEST CONCLUDED The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Robert James Scott, who was electrocuted at Kaitangata on August 29, as a result of touching a wire on a fence which had come in contact with a fallen electric wire, was held at Kaitangata yesterday before Mr F. Carson, J.P., acting-coroner, and a jury of four. Mr W. H. Carson watched proceedings on behalf of Thos. Middlemass and another interested party; Mr J. M. Paterson on behalf of the Public Trustee, and Mr G. M. Lloyd on behalf of the Otago Power Board. Robert William Miller, trucker, of Kaitangata, said that about 3;46 on the date mentioned he saw deceased on the section where he kept his horses. Witness saw him walk towards a haystack, and immediately ■ afterwards heard him call out as if in pain. Witness went round to see what was wrong and saw deceased sitting down by the fence at the stack. He was sitting with his legs underneath the fence, his two hands gripping the top wire, and his body and head thrown backwards. He was then unconscious. Witness tried to lift him under the arms to support him, and then put his hand on his face and received a fairly severe shock. He then called out to his brother and told him not to touch the wires, and the latter went away to' have the power cut off. Shortly after, one of deceased’s hands slipped off the fence and witness pulled the other, off. Deceased then appeared to be dead. He and his brother tried artificial respiration till the arrival of Dr Dodds. In his opinion, deceased had been getting through the fence or over it. To a juryman: He went under the fence and did not feel any shock. Ten minutes had elapsed-before deceased’s hands fell from the. wire. -.Deceased would either have to go over or under the wires before he could reach the stack. Clarence Forrest, a trucker,-gave corroborative evidence. He said that when ho touched the top wire of the _ fence he got a slight shock _ in the tips of the fingers. It was raining heavily at the time and the ground and fence were soaking wet. Dr Dodds, of Kaitangata, gave evidence as to finding deceased lying inside the fence. Life was extinct. The cause of death was heart failure from shock. Death'had been known tq have been caused by 50 volts under wet conditions. It was raining heavily at the time and deceased’s. clothes were wet through. Thomas Middlemass, station master at Kaitangata, said that deceased had a paddock leased from him on which he kept his horses. Forrest told him deceased had been electrocuted at the haystack fence, bub he had no idea where -the current was coining from. Witness had two electric wires leading to a pump in the section deceased was using. Two poles supported this line. There was a third wire running from the house to the first pole. On the 27th the pole at the pump fell down and the two wires lay over the fowl run fences. That evening he saw Mr M‘Dqnald, of the Power Board, and asked him to disconnect the wires, at, the pump. Mr M‘Donald pulled a plug on the switchboard and told witness to let nobody touch it. At that time he thought everything was disconnected on that line. On the' 28th a Mr Smith was putting in a support for a new pole at the pump and whijo he was working at it the other pole nearer the house fell down. The three wires were then lying across the netting-wire fence alongside the house; ■ On the 29th deceased brought a load of coal to his house and witness went outside and lifted the wires to let the horse and cart under. It was ' raining at the time, but witness felt no shock. He would not have handled them had he not thought the' current was off. Mr M‘Donald disconnected the wires after the accident. Witness said he thought the whole line was “ dead.” Norman M‘Donald, electrical inspector in the district for the Otago Power Board, said that on August 27 Mr Middlemass had asked him to see if some wires outside his house were safe. He disconnected a fuse controlling power to the pump. Mr Middlemass told him that a third wire was one that had been used to supply light to a tent and was now disused. On being informed of the accident, he cut off the power, and on arriving at Middlemass’s residence found that a pole previously standing had fallen, and .that the disused wire from the house to that pole had been alive up to the time the power was cut off. This wire and the other two were lying across the fence near Middlemas's’s house'. The voltage would be about' 230 to earth. In reply to Mr Carson, witness said it was subsequently found that the “ live ” wire had worn through the insulation and made direct contact with the top wire of the fence. Evidence was also' given by Lester Frank Withers, electrical engineer to the Public Works Department, Dunedin, Robert D. Veitch, engineer to the Otago Power Board,, and Constable Irwin. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased died from shock through coming in contact with the wire fence, which had become alive through the fall of a pole conveying electric power wires from Mr Middleniass’s house to an outside pole. The Acting-coroner added that a word of commendation was due to Mr Miller and those who went to try to remove the deceased from the fence, also for the prompt steps they took at resuscitation. The sympathy of the court went out to the family of deceased in their