DANGER OF ELECTRIC WIRES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13744, 8 May 1908, Page 8

DANGER OF ELECTRIC WIRES.

ACCIDENT IN SYDNEY.

A singular accident occurred a few days ago in Sydney. The jib of a crane, while lifting a heavy stone from the street on to a building in course of erection, gave way and fell against the telephone wires. A number of the wires were broken, and ■ the loose ends. came in contact with the electric tram wire. Two lorries were standing immediately.beneath the jib, and the broken wires, charged with about 600 volts from the tramway wire, fell in a wriggling heap around one of the lorries, ana instantaneously killed two horses attached to it. A number of people narrowly escaped contact with the wires, and a number of serious injuries would probably have been received but for the promptness of a tramway official, who ran to the stop," and, donning his insulated gloves, cut the wires away with a pair of pliers. This ■stopped all the tramcars throughout a great part of the city, . which were dependent on that current for power. Part of the' service was suspended for an hour before repairs could be effected. The incident elicited the information that horses are,, much more susceptible to electricity than human beings, an expert saying that the shock which killed the horses would not have proved fatal to a man unless he was in a low state of health..