FATAL FALL

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20987, 14 December 1939, Page 8

FATAL FALL

LINESMAN KILLED NECK DISLOCATED ACCIDENT AT FENCOURT (Special to Times) CAMBRIDGE, Thursday About 4 p.m. yesterday a fatal accident occurred at Fencourt when Thomas Harwood, a married man, aged 56 years, of Leamington, fell 20 feet from a power pole. An assistant linesman employed by the Cambridge Power Board, Mr Harwood was working with the board’s permanent line gang on lowtension work on a secondary line. At the time of the accident he was working up the pole alone, his foreman, Mr F. Cooper, having left him just before to proceed to a transformer in order to liven the line. Other members of the gang were working on the line about half-a-mile away. Mr Cooper’s first intimation of an accident was when the driver of a passing van called out to him and pointed towards the pole on which Mr Harwood was working. Mr Cooper then saw Mr Harward lying on the ground. He immediately secured assistance and the police and a doctor were notified. Mr Albert Bertelsen, a member of the gang, tried artificial respiration without success, and when Dr. H. C. Tod arrived he found Mr Harwood dead as the result of dislocation of the neck. The accident occurred on a pole immediately opposite the front entrance of Mr H. Watkin's property on the St. Kilda Road. There were marks on the boots which seemed to indicate that Mr Harwood had slipped off a cross-bar of the pole. Mr Harwood had resided in Cambridge for about four years, and was a popular member of the board’s outside staff. He was a keen Rugby follower and was a coach of the United Club. He is survived by his wife and family of eight children, the eldest being Mrs L. Keeley, of Matamata. A sister, Mrs A. Broderson resides in Cambridge. This was the first serious accident the Cambridge Power Board had had in the 20 years of its existence.