ELECTROCUTED ?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 100, 25 October 1930, Page 10

ELECTROCUTED ?

HAND ON A WIRE GUY INQUEST AT LOWER HUTT BOY'S FATAL TOUCH An inquest into the death of Thomas David AUanson, aged 14, who was killed on the morniug of 27th September through touching a guy wire from a poet near the White's Lino ramp, Woburn, was held at Lower Hutt today before the Coroner (Mr.-J. S..Barton, S.M.) Sergeant J. Yi\ M'Holm conducted the inquiry, Mr. C. J. O'Eegan appeared for the- relatives of the boy, Mr. D. E.. Hoggard for the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board, Mr. P. B. Cooke for the' State Fire and Accident Office, and Mr. J. Webster telegraph engineer, for . the Post and Telegraph Department. Dr. B. J. Dudley, to whose surgery the deceased was taken after the accident, stated that there was no doubt that the Foy had been dead for some time when he arrived at the surgery. On the left hand were undoubted burns, such as' would be caused by a live wire, and on the right hand were smears of what was apparently an insulting material. All the marks were consistent with death by electrocution. Evidence of identification was given by. George Allanson, father of' the deceased. He said tliat there w^s a beaten path where the accident occurred.' ; FLASH ON THE WIRE. Henrietta C. Judd, v married woman, of White's Line, who was walking over the ramp just before the accident,'said that she saw tho boy running.along the.side of the ramp towards the Prince Edward Theatre. He put out his right.hand and touched a black insulated wire. : AYitness saw a. flash •on the wire a little further on. from where he touched it. The boy screamed and fell backwards. Witness told a pass-, ing man about it, and within a few minutes he had taken the boy away in a car. • In reply to questions witness said that the point where the boy touched the wire was just high enough for him to reach. It was a sloping wire, running from a post, to which it was attached about a foot above the ground to a hi»her post. She saw only one wire—the insulated one that the boy touched. The path tho boy was running along was well used by foot traffic as a short-cut. To Mr. Cooke, witness said that the distance of the flash from the boy w^as between.'4} and ?i't. Another : witness of the accident from the ramp, Thelnia E. Phillips, of Parliament, street, Lower Hutt, who was walking with the previous witness, said that she did not see the boy until he had hold of the wire. He appeared to be between two wires, with a hand on each.. He was about fifteen feet away from '■ her. She saw.the wire in his right hand swing, and a flame ran down it. The boy groaned and fell to the ground. When she first saw the boy .ho was standing still, holding the wires a little'above the height of his head.: : To questions from the police and the Coroner, witness replied that when the boy fell to ' the ground he lay quite still. . The wire which the boy touched with his right hand was thicker than the other. It ran .from,'the top of one pole to the bottom of another.1 Charles E.- Bentley, labourer, of William street, Petone, who was driving a ■ motor-yan over Hie . ramp, and was stopped and told of the accident, said that he and another man brought the boy to. the van and took him to th© doctor. They had to get down on. their hands and knees to get the boy from :under. the wires. One was galvanised and one was. insulated. The boy. gasped when they first lifted him, but made no sound after that. LINESMAN'S EVIDENCE. Ernest Delaney, of Tawa street, Woburn, lines foreman of the Hutt Valley Electric. Power. Board, who removed the wires immediately after the accident, said that the insulated wire ran from one pole about two feet from the bottom, up to the top of another about two chains away near the theatre. It was bare at the top and attached to a cross-arm of the pole, between two.of three feeder wires carrying 11,000 volts. A cross-arm below carried 6000 volts on one side of the pole and telephone wires on the other, and a third cross-arm below, that carried low tension power and lighting wires. The naked end of the stay wire, was about 16 inches from the nearest 11,000-volt live wire. RAISING A DOUBT. ,At this stage Mr. Cooke intimated that he would ask for an adjournment. First, however, he would like to question the two lady witnesses again. Delanej' stood down, and Mrs. Judd entered the box. : .Mr. Cooke: "Did you see the boy,; after he fell, roll down to the culvert where he was found?" Witness: -"No. He Jay quite still near the culvert.", Mr. Cooke: "Would it.be possible] for him to have struck .his head on the culvert when he fell?"—"It may have been possible, but I don't think he-did;" . ■ . . > Mr. Cooke: "You would not be prepared to. swear that he did not?"— "No; I could not say definitely." Miss Phillips was recalled. She also said that she did not think the boy had hit the culvert hard, but she would not be prepared to swear that he did not. • Mr. Cooke said that neither Mr. Hoggard nor himself was satisfied about the cause of death. They would like to call Dr., Dudley, again, and possibly other witnesses who could help to elucidate the matter. The Coroner: "You aro alluding to the possibility of death from a fractured skull and not by electrocution?" —"Yes, sir." The inquest was adjourned until next Saturday.