CASUALTIES.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15463, 16 December 1915, Page 8

CASUALTIES.

FATAL FALL FIIOM LADDER. iti.r xjl. »V. £>u>moj/, -l/iou ici, cuxviiur, conuucieu an inquest uo tno jioiguo iust mgiic relative to tne cleuin oi l.'uarieg wood elevens, an employee 01 taio i'uuuc woiks Uepariuient, wuo led Hum a ladder wane engaged in uuintlug the cross-arm or an eiuuwic pole on tno Lincoln road, late yesterday afternoon. l"crcy Giles gave evidence that Q ? was assisting, Uio deceased, lioiding tn<i ladder wnno ateveus uauited. He neard Stevens groaning, and saw that ho had hold ot a live wire. He started to run up tno ladder, but bolore lie could get to the top Stevens fell to the ground head foremost. It was the wrench ho made to get freo from Jthe wire that caused iStevena to fall. Tho wao carried 230 volts. The Coroner: What is fatal ? Mr L. Birks: About 1000 volts.

The witness, continuing, said that deceased probably lost his balance auu caught hold of the wire to steady himself. Stevens had been working at the painting throughout tho day. Margaret Stevens, wife of the deceased, said her husband was an experienced man, and w-»s years of age, strong and healthy, and not likely to be overcome by heat or exposure to the sun.

Herbert W. Brook, electrical loreman for the" Public Works Department, said deceased had been in the employ of tho Department for about eighteen months, doing general painting work. He was a first-class practical man. Special instructions were issued to all employees to treat all wires as live wires. Witness thought that the heat of the day and the fumes of the paint we/e responsible for deceased being overcome and causing him to lose his balance. He would fall about 25 feet. The inner wire next to the pole was a neutral wire bearing no voltage. From the description of the accident, -witness thought that was tSe wire deceased had hold of.

The Coroner returned a verdict that deceased died through falling Trom a ladder while engaged in painting an electric pole.

A man named George Briges was brought into tbo Christchurch Hospital last evening from Amber ley, suffering from a fractured leg.

(r-EES.* ASSOCIATION TELECItAJO AUCKLAND, December 15. _ Sutton, aged ten years, was drowned in the Waipa river at Ngaruawahia vasterday. WELLINGTON. December 15. A woman named Bessio Tattle, who I lived in Frederick street, died suddenly last night. While sitting with some of ber young children she was suddenly ['taken ill. She Jay down on the bed land expired. Her husband, Alfred Tattle, is in camp at Trenthara. A youth named Herbert Hobday, living at Island Bay, met with a * ratal accident early thu> morning. He was handling a loaded revolver when the charge exploded, and the bullet struck him on the head., fracturing his skuii. He was removed to the hospital, where an operation was performed, and a portion of tho bullet removed, but ho died later in tho day. Mrs Mitchell, an elderly woman belonging to luvc/cargill. died in the hospital as a msult ot injuries received through being knocked down by a train at Petone last Saturday. DUXEDIN. December 10. The body or Robert Mountain, 81 years of ago. who had been missing from Xascb.v since Monday, was found to-day in the dam. The body was weighted with a large stone in a sugarbag tied round the neck.