HEAD COMPLETELY SEVERED WHEN FELL ON HIGH-VOLT LINE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6672, 27 July 1928, Page 10

HEAD COMPLETELY SEVERED WHEN FELL ON HIGH-VOLT LINE

Per Press Association.- ■ EOTOEUA, Last Night. The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Eatu Kapana, a boy of 9 years, on July 18th, was held this morning by Mr S. L, Patterson, S.M., District Coroner. John McAlister, a linesman in the employ of tho Public Works Department said that on July 18th. he was patrolling tho line. He arrived at Mourca about 12.45 p.m. and was told by a Maori woman that she had seen a flash on tho Eotdrua-Opitiki transmission line which h-u a voltage of 50,000 volts. He went along and saw tho body of a boy on the top of the structure about 85 feet from the ground. "• -y ’ - The boy was dead. His head was covered from his body and. lay about 50 yards from the polo. There were stops on the pile by which the boy could have climbed. Ho might have got on to the telephone hut and then started to climb the pole. Ho appeared to have climbed up and then come into contact with the live wire. He thought he got a shock and then fell forward on the wire which severed his head. A It was dangerous to go within three feet of a wire carrying 50,000 volts. The telephone hut was a permanent structure. It was about 10 fehi, high. The boy could got on the telephone box. ■He rang the operator at Ngongotaha to cut off the current. The verdict of tho Coroner was that deceased, Eatu Eapana, by misadventure, came into, contact with a highvoltago electric power line and was electrocuted. He further said that telephone huts or similar structures . should not be ■ placed so close t to poles carrying power lines as to- permit persons stepping from, them on to steps placed on such poles.