POOR INSULATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 251, 23 October 1945, Page 2

POOR INSULATION

WORKMAN ELECTROCUTED DANGER EMPHASISED WANGANUI, Monday. "Insulation on this type of wire is of no value at all after six months when' it gets wet," the WanganuiRangitikei Electric Power Board's engineer, Mr. H. Webb, told the district coroner, Mr. S. M. Dixon, at an inquest into the death of Mr. Bernard Boyle, aged 60. Mr. Boyle, who was an employee on an estate at Kai-iwi, near Wanganui, was found dead beside a broken power line on the night of October 3. He was grasping a live wire which had been broken by a storm that evening. The coroner returned a verdict that Mr. Boyle had met his death by electrocution.

Mr. Webb said that the tvpe of wire which had caused Mr. Boyle's death was really a menace, because when people saw that it was covered they thought it safe to handle. "There is a strong agitation on the part of electric supply authority engineers to have this tvpe of wire banned," Mr. Webb added. He explained that the wire, being a subsidiary one running to a wool shed from-the main supply, is belonged to the consumer, but the onus was on the power board to see that it was kept in order.