ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21198, 23 June 1934, Page 14

ACCIDENTS

* FATAL ELECTRIC SHOCK BOY KILLED IN TRYING TO AID FATHER [THE FBESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, June 22. Rushing to the aid of his father, who was holding a wireless aerial which had fallen across the electric service wires, Alex Rimmer, aged 19, received a fatal electic shock, near Tauranga this morning. The father, Mr J. Rimmer, of Welcome Bay, received a severe shock, but the young man, in pulling the wire from his father's hands, was killed almost instantly. Father and son were engaged this morning in erecting a wireless aerial at their home, situated on a farm at Welcome Bay, which is about five miles from Tauranga, on the road to Te Puke. Both were standing on <*round which was damp after heavy rain, and they were apparently working the aerial into position when the wire became detached and tell across the service wires leading into the house. Mr Rimmer, sen., grasped the aerial to disentangle it, and immediately was transfixed by a severe shock. Noticing his father's predicament Alex. Rimmer clutched at the wire. Apparently he succeeded in wrenching it from his father's grasp, but he received a shock which proved fatal. Mrs Rimmer immediately telephoned for the police and a doctor: but when Dr. Mark arrived by, car from the Tauranga Hospital Alex Rimmer was dead. The father, although he received no burns, suffered severely from the result of the shock he had received, and was unable to give a complete account of the tragedy. "This is the third recent case af fatal electric shock as a result of contact between wireless aerials and live wires," said Mr R. H. Bartley, general manager of the Auckland Electric Power Board, when the details of the Tauranga happening were referred to him. "There are at present no regulations governing the erection of aerials, and as I reported to the board some time ago, the position is fraught with danger." Mr Bartley said the power suply in the area was probably one of 230 volts. The damp ground would prqvide good connexion to the earth, and under i these conditions a shock of 230 volts could quite easily prove fatal. "There is a considerable risk in erecting wireless aerials in a position where they may fall across service wires or power lines," Mr Bartley added. "As I say, there are no regulations: but in certain instances when we notice that wireless aerials are dangerously placed we are taking a certain measure of authority and advise householders to have them shifted. The whole matter of erecting wireless aerials should be under strict control."

MOTORIST'S DEATH

INQUEST OPENED AT CHEVIOT The inquest into the death of Geoffrey Albert Maybury, 26 years of age, who was killed when the sedan motor-car in which he was driving overturned down a 100-foot bank on the Phoebe-Leamington road on Thursday evening, was held at the Courthouse, Cheviot, yesterday afternoon, before Mr G. Struthers, District Coroner. Charles Spalding Craik, labourer (father-in-law), 111 Ferry road, Christchurch, gave evidence of identification, and said that his son-in-law left Christchurch at 11 a.m. on Thursday with Mr A. D. Cooper as a passenger, and intended returning to Christchurch the same evening. He was employed as South Island agent for the Riley Motor Company, and had made the trip to Cheviot on business. The inquest was adjourned sine die to allow further investigation to be made. Mr Cooper, who was also injured, is reported to be making satisfactory progress.