MAN ELECTROCUTED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 113, 29 May 1937, Page 3

MAN ELECTROCUTED

■Prm AMOciatiom.T

Inquest Into Millerton Mishap

(By Telegmph-

i WESTPORT, Last Night. 5 At tho inquest touching the death* of Alexander Burt, in. the employ »£ jthe Westport Coal Company at Millerjton, held by Mr, E. R. Fox, Coroner at jGranity, this afternoon, the evidence of, •Roy McGregor McGibbon, district elec-' jtrical engineer, Public .Works Departiment, Christchurch, was to the effectj ,that the wire wTiich caused jthe fatalityl was one which had been xemoved from a . high tension line and laid on the ground approximately 20 feet away 'from the power line, and it was tha work of a man named Craighead- andt deceased to carry tMs wire furthe away from .the power lines to a telephone line about two or three chains away from and parallei to the power lines. Where the fatality oceurred, the power line crosses a deep gully, and there was an angle in the power iiae of approximately 30 degrees at the bottoin of the gully. The position of the wirej to be taken to the telephone line was such that, if it were parallei froxa'.the top of the gully on the power-house side, ft would approach yery 'near to • the power line. When he examined the wire it was found looped over one of the insulators of the power line. It appeared to him that, in endeavouring to swing the wire towa.rds the telephoiie line, the wire accidentaliy swung into an insulator. The voltage of the power line was 3300 between phases, or approximately 1900 between those and the ground. The evidence of Craighead was Jhat the telephone line got caught on an insulator, and he was knocked unconscious. When he recovered, he went to lcok for Burt, and found his hand gripping the telephone wire and the body lying across the wire. He was ,theh dead. The Coroner returned a verdict that deceased was accidentaliy electrocuted by the wire he was handling in th« course of his employment coming in con« tact with a high tension wire.