LUCKY MAN

Hokitika Guardian, 15 November 1932, Page 5

LUCKY MAN

AMAZING- ESCAPE

FROM ELECTROCUTION

(Per Press Association- - Lupy right j

AUCKLAND, November 14

All amassing escape Hum uibiaiitaneous death was ex A ,erieneeu tms mu ruing by .Leslie urauani ryre, ageU ZJ years, a single man, when ne came ,111 contact wrui. a cunuucior carrying 59,UUi* volts at the uovernment iMectrie Power Suostation at Teuruse, ana leli about. reel to the grouna. ry.e,''win- resiues at Penrose } received Hums to practically every part of Ins Ucciy, ana Ims head was serereiy injured as tne result of the fall, no is itso suffering from siiocit.

Tne man aih not lose consciousness, and, after receiving medical attention, lie was taken to the hospital in a serious condition.

immediately prior to the accident, Fyle had been removing birds’ nests from a high tension structure in the station yard. As there were n 0 witnesses to the actual occurrence, it is not known exactly how the injured man came to touch the conductor, which is high above the high tension structure, and is barely within the reach of a man standing on the topmost girder. The members of the station staff in the vicinity heard a loud report arid saw a bright flash, and then they found Fyfe lying below the structure on one of the switches.

“it is phenomenal that he is still alive after taking 30,000 volts through liis body ; but tlie shook of striking his head on the switch below may have helped to bring him round,” said Mr 0. Chamberlain, Superintendent at the ,station. He had known of other cases where people had survived after such extremely severe shocks, but, as a rule, they were killed instantly. It was impossible to say how Fyfe had touched the conductor. .

Fyfe, who recently graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering at Canterbury College, has been employed as an operator at Penrose lor the past two months,