WORKER ELECTROCUTED.

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1928, Page 5

WORKER ELECTROCUTED.

AN UNUSUAL CASE. Fatal Error to Safeguard Mates.' (Per Press Associatiqn.-, GISBORNE, 'August 27. Circumstances attending the death of Roy Gray Bartlett, 27 years of age who was el ctrocuted ,on, Wednesday while working on the WiuaJlja dMrict extension portion of the Poverty Bay Electric Power Board scheme, were inquired into to-day by Coroner Levey, S.M.

Evidenc ■ given by the foreman of the party out with deceased was .to the effect that deceased and another were sent to bring a ladder to a pole next to th? one at which the fatality occurred, and were out of sight'of the other workers, who were in the riverbed. After deceased had been gone ten minutes, witness received a report from the men on the other sid • of the river that smoke and flames were coming from the top of the plughole. Witness went to .the scene. He saw tli? deceased on the top of the pole, lying across the wooden arms, with one arm across one line aud the back of his neck across another. The current was cut off and the body was lowered to the ground. There were six wir?s on the arms, three of them being live ones, with a voltage of six thousand, and three dead. So far as he knew d ceased had no reason to ascend the ’adder. He had not acted contrary to instructions, but had exceeded instructions. The reason deceased had as cended the pole was that two dead wires w?re bridged together, and deceased evidently .thought that they should not be like that, and went up to disconnect them. There was no mistake in the bridging, but to an inexperienc 'd man, it might have looked like a. fault. If deceased thought something was wrong, witness admitted it was his (deceased’s) duty to fix it, and thus safeguard his mates, or if any mistake had been mad?, then all the men working in the riverbed were in danger. If the deceased had be lieved som 'thing was wrong. he did the best thing he could have done. The Coroner returned a verdict that the deceased accidentally fell from the pole on to .the electric wires, and that deceased ascended the pole for the purpose of effecting certain repairs which, in his opinion, were necessary.