TELEGRAPH LINESMAN KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 88, 14 April 1927, Page 8

TELEGRAPH LINESMAN KILLED.

CONTACT WITH POWER LDjy EVIDEXt K AT IN WEST. An inquest to inquire into the ciinimstanees surrounding the death of Stephen ( biisiopli.-r Kiddell, a graph lineman, aged :■;■. w ] )0 died t'.e Auckland Hospital ;i- the result rf injuries fallow iti« 011 reining nu eleo tiic shook during th« eour-e of his vork and falling to t lie ground, was helj yesterday aftr-in ~ hv the coroner Mr. P. K. Hunt. >.M. Sergeant Rock, of New market, iwjg. sented the police. Mi. .1. Terry thi parents of deceased, and Mr. S. Paterson. ihe Telegraph Department, Severed Lines. Ernest Eindlay. for. man in charm on the day of the accident, said he ». stniete.l the deceased io climb a pole and change the -L holts to spindle bolt*. He observed that Kiddell had proceedej to carry out this work, and then went' elsewhere to carry out other operations. Returning five minutes later be saw $&' deceased lying on the ground. The doceased received no infractions to until any wires, and his long experiena should have warned liim against fini procedure. There was no need for him to usp niblier gloves to carrv out witness* instruct ions. The Power Bond leads passed between the telephone wires and the telephone cable. Witnea was unable to account for the probable source of the current that was receivel by the deceased. If Kiddell did not carry the wires up the ladder, as it mi supposed, the current must have bees transmitted from some other source, The power line did not come in contact with the telephone wires to his know* ledge.

Overseer's Conclusions. The overseer of the operation?, Johm Bro>nan, said "My conclusions as the result of my investigation are that the deceased carried one or both of the trie* phone wires up the ladder with him,«ni that, in doing so. one of the yma fouled the end portion of the live wins, thus receiving the full force of fla electric current of 230 volts."' Since th» mishap the Power Board have cause! their leads to he placed above and deaf of our telephone wires. In reply to the coroner, witness sail the damage to the power lead was quit! recent, and the wires touching it migit have caused thi*. Departmental Regulations. Dr. L. K. Crow said that the deceases, had no mark of burns on him, and the cause of death was a broken neck, wMck was attended by. extensive paralysis. Evidence was abo submitted to the effect that the deceased was observed to be up the ladder and endeavouring to make a connection of some description. He suddenly threw up his arms and fell to the ground. He muttered something about having received a shock, and lapsed into unconsciousness.

The engineer in charge of the tele* graph branch. Mr. Campbell, said that the regulations provided that vten power lines and telegraph lines intersected the power lines mu>t cross abort or below as may be decided by the Department. The clearance was two fcrf in the case of low tension lines ani four feet in the case of high tendon wires. In the present case the clearance was only fifteen inches, but £b» defect had been remedied.

The coroner found that Kiddell fifl at the Auckland Hospital on March 18, the cause of his death l>ein<: injuries le received from accidentally fallrajr from a telegraph pole on February 2 bf* having received a shock from the *i™ he \\a< n-im: touching a Power Boari line. He dcMi-iKed the case as bein? » very sad cue. and commented upon tit fact that this was the second case 1* had had before him in recent montJs.