Lineman Claiming £30,000 Damages

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 14

Lineman Claiming £30,000 Damages

GVew Zealand Press Association)

PALMERSTON NORTH, Sept. 13. The hearing of a claim for £30,000 damages against the Manawatu-Oroua Electric Power Board opened in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North today before the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) and a jury.

The claim is being made by Ronald Herbert Davies, aged 22, of Feeding, for injuries suffered during his employment with the board.

Mr I. L. McKay is appearing for the plaintiff. The board is represented by Mr R. O. R. Clarke.

Opening the case for the plaintiff. Mr MeKay said that* three years ago Davies was] a trainee lineman with the! board. On July 9, 1962. he came into contact with live switches, and, as a result, had spent more than 500 days in various hospitals up to April of this year. The plaintiff was one of a gang building the Feilding sub-station. The accident occurred at about 1 p.m. when the plaintiff was told to

climb the sub-station structure to affix a piece of diagonal bracing. Davies was not told that the conductors above where he was to work were alive. He fastened his safety belt to an axle which actuated an airbreak switch. This was the last he remembered.

The plaintiff suffered ex-1 treme pain in hospital had* nine or 10 skin graft opera-! tions and spent 12 months in the Wellington and Hutt Hospitals. After a short period at home he returned twice to hospital for further skin grafting operations and surgery. He had also had difficulty adjusting his eyes to light. The plaintiff was now working for four hours a day in the board’s test room.