SHOCKING DEATH BY LIGHTNING.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1895, 20 March 1880, Page 3

SHOCKING DEATH BY LIGHTNING.

The Sandhurst correspondent of the “Argus” supplies the following particulars of a sad death by lightning, which occurred near Kangaroo Flat railway station at the beginning of the month:—A man named Martin Moloney, a platelayer on the line, was engaged with three others at the place mentioned. At the time stated, the men were at dinner. The deceased and a man named Isaac Griffiths were sitting on a trolly that had been removed from the mils, the wheels having bean placed at each end. A thunderstorm came on, and the two men decided to go into a culvert, but just afterwards a flash of lightning came, striking Moloney and killing him instantaneously. Griffiths was also affected by the stroke, and was rendered insensible for a few minutes. He sustained no serious injury, but his escape was almost miraculous. Moloney’s clothes were torn to shreds. His hat could not be found, and the heels of a heavy pair of blucher boots which he wore were dragged completely off. The ballast on the line was also torn up. The injuries to the unfortunate man were described as shocking. The outside skin on being pressed by the fingers pealed off, the face was discoloured, blood was issuing from both ears and the nostrils, the hair was singed off the back of the head, the left leg was broken, both bones being shattered into fragments, both heels were lacerated as if by a knife, and all the bones in their parts were ground up. Two other men, who were eating their dinner in the culvert, a few yards off, felt the shock, but were not injured. The ganger, Thomas Sharpe, who had charge of the men, and who was engaged in diverting the course of a water channel, was knocked into the water, but he recovered almost immediately. Hot more than a minute elapsed after the shock before Moloney was found dead.