Inquiry into fatal blast

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 1

Inquiry into fatal blast

PA Wellington A special commission of inquiry will investigate the cause of last week’s double fatality at a Hutt Valley electrical sub-sta-tion. The two-man commission will hear evidence in private, but will report publicly.

The commission was announced at a joint press conference yesterday given by the genera) manager of the Hutt Valley Electric Power and Gas Board. Mr J. D. Ellis and Mr A. .1 Nearv, secretary of the North Island Electrical Workers Union.

Both men spoke to a meeting of 170 power board workers at Petone earlier in the day. New procedures for using switch gear of the type involved in the explosion have been introduced by the Hutt Valley board pending the inquiry.

It has passed on its recommendations to other power bodies using similar gear

Three preliminary inquiries are already under way — one by the board’s chief engineer; another by a consulting engineer, being conducted jointly for the board and the union; and a third by the Electricity Division for the police for submission to the coroner's inquest into the deaths. All the evidence will be considered by the commission of inquiry.