FAULTY APPARATUS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 78, 12 January 1928, Page 4

FAULTY APPARATUS.

ENGINE-DRIVER ELECTROCUTED. (Per Press Association.) HAMILTON, January 11. An inquest, to ascertain the cause of death of Maurice Robinson Halle, an engine-driver, employed at the time of his demise, Sunday" December 18, by the Waikato Valley Dairy Company, was held to-day before the District Coroner, Mr Wyvern Wilson. Deceased was found in a dying condition on the floor of the factory, and there was some doubt as to whether death resulted from heart failure or electrocution Alexander Murdoch Bellamy, Electrical Inspector, said that on the morning following the fatality he inspected the Waikato Valley Dairy Company's factory. He tested the flexible cord of a portable lamp, and found that the cord was making contact with the brass socket of the lamp-holder. That would cause a defect liable to give a person touching the copper shield of the portable lamp a shock. The Coroner said there were two unsatisfactory 'features about the case. The first was that the apparatus was interfered with by a person not qualified to interfere with it, and who left it in a somewhat dangerous condition. It was in that condition when Halle took possession of it for the purpose of his work. The second feature was that there was no satisfactory evidence that this particular apparatus was ever inspected or tested. It was certainly in a dangerous condition for the work in which it was used. A verdict that deceased was accidentally electrocuted was turned.