FATAL ELECTRIC SHOCK

Evening Star, Issue 20784, 5 May 1931, Page 8

FATAL ELECTRIC SHOCK

A SAD CASE [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 5. That Wilfred Clarence Taylor died through electric shock accidentally received by him in touching the wire netting round the Linwood Methodist Tennis Club’s Courts on April 11 was the verdict returned by Mr Mosley, S.M., at the inquest. “ 1 am hound to say,” stated the coroner, “ that most of us are comparatively uneducated regarding electricity and current, except that we know that as a rule they are dangerous things to handle. Many of us do not know when the danger arises what to do, and there is many a man who has lost his life through not knowing what to do. In the case of Taylor, he has gone absolutely innocently to his death, and I can only express to his wife and family the regret of everybody at the ,sacrifice.”

[A high netting fence, which was erected to prevent balls from going into the neighbouring gardens, had a hole cut in it to allow space for the electric power lines to pass through. Chafing in the high winds had apparently nibbed off the insulation, and the whole netting became alive. Taylor called at the house of his landlord, S. Harrington, to pay his rent, and while he was talking to Mrs Harrington, her seven-teen-year-old daughter, who had come through the lawn tennis court, said she felt an electric shock when she touched the latch of the tennis court gate. Taylor went to investigate, and put both hands on the netting, and could not free himself. Mrs Harrington tried to pull him away, but was herself “shocked,” and could not do so. She then went for assistance. Taylor quickly collapsed, and fell on his back and died before medical aid could be obtained.]