DOUBLE ELECTROCUTION.

Shannon News, 18 December 1925, Page 2

DOUBLE ELECTROCUTION.

FENCE WUiES BECOME LIVE. The Waika/j Independent gives the following 'account of tne sad fatalities, through an electric line breaking:—-' Quite a, sensation was caused in Cambridge ui Saturday artternoon,' when it became known that a, double fatality had occurred at Tauwhare that day, two persons being electro-, cuted. All'Sorts off vague rumours were current- at first in connection with the accident. It appears that Mr. Mark Webb, a Tauwhare resident, was returning home on hoi seback early in the afternoon, and on reaching the gate of his residence, apparently bent down to unfasten tno catch, wjhen he touched the charged wire of the fence with his wrist, and was killed instantly. His hand was burnt off at the wrist, and when fcund lie was lying on the ground with the severed hand beneath' him. His horse received a shock, but was not killed, although his dog, in creeping beneath the fence was electrocuted.

Some time later his grandson, Walter Collett, aged seven, 6.0 n of Mr and Mrs T. Collett, farmers, of Tauwhare, who had been sent to post a letter, and had evidently taken a short cut. thro ugh the fence, was found lying dead between the fence wires, with a deep burin- down one side. It was. later discovered by friends who found the bodies that an electric 'cable carrying 11,000 volts, had fallen on to tin: fence a few chains from, where the fatalities happened. An inquest was formally opened on the victims on Sunday morning, and adjourned till Wednesday next. It is stated that a well-known resident of Tauwhare was apprised of the fact that the caible was lying on the fence, but so far as we can ascertain the Central Power Board, in whose district the accident occurred, were not communicated with until after the accident.