WIREMAN HURT

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 145, 17 December 1934, Page 10

WIREMAN HURT

TOUCHED POWER LINE

11,000- VOLT SHOCK

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

PALMERSTON N., This Day.

As a result of cowing into contact with an 11,000-volt transmission line at Feilding yesterday, a Manawatu Electric Power Board linesman named Harry Smith is in hospital in a serious condition. At 2 p.m. yesterday tho power was switched off the 3300-volt lines to allow of repairs to a transformer. Smith, was up an adjacent pole ready to restrain one of tho cables and apparently climbed too high, as his shoulder came in contact with the 11,000-volt line four feet above the 3300 line, which was still alive. There were fourteen of the board's employees engaged on the job, and the first they know of the mishap was the roar of tho power arc as Smith contacted the lino above him. He collapsed immediately, but his legs got caught in the dead 3300 cables and he hung there partly supported by Mr. Dovin, who was working on the same pole.

Immediate steps were taken to lower; tho unfortunate man to the ground by means of a rope while the ambulance and a doctor wero summoned. Smith was then removed to hospital. He is a married man with seven children, and his'injuries consist of very severe burns on the back and leg as well as severe shock. '