ELECTROCUTED.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6048, 5 November 1906, Page 6

ELECTROCUTED.

FATALITY AT MIRAMAR. A THOUSAND VOLT WIRE. THE CAUSE. A man named William Wilson, while driving a timber waggon near Miramar wharf on Saturday afternoon, was killed by contact with a live electric lighting wire. Tho accident happened shortly before 5 o’clock. Wilson was driving timber from tho wharf, where it had been landed from tho Anchor lino’s steamer Alexander, to Eassou and Company’s timber factory, Kilbinno. According to tho statement of a fellow-carter, William Weldon, who drova oft the wharf in front of Wilson, there was a fallen wire lying across the road. Weldon drove over the wire, but Wilson jumped off his cart to pick tho wire up, in order to, allow tho Miramar ’bus to pass. Immediately ho touched tho wire ho fell. Ho did not rise again. Tho pahn or the left band and the tips of tho fingers arc stated to have been badly marked where tho wire burned them. Wilson’s body was brought to Wellington on tho s.s. Admiral, and was convoyed to tho morgue. EFFECT ON THE HORSES. A slightly different account of tho accident is given by another eye-wit-ness, who was a passenger on the Miramar ’bus, which was approaching the wharf at about 4.65 p.m. According to him, a horse attached to • a dray loaded with house-feed was seen to suddenly take fright through touching an electric-light wire which was hanging across the road. Tho horse backed the load over the embankment on to tho foreshore. It was when going to assist the driver of tho first-mentioned dray that Wilson came into contact with tho wire. Ho went to tho back of tho dray, and appeared to get hold ■: tho live wire to pull it clear of the horse. He immediately fell to the ground, and was soon after found to bo dead. Of tho victim Wilson little, is known. Ho was a single man He lived at 24, Dixon street. He is believed to have oomo to this colony from Australia about two years ago. At tho time of tho accident ho was emnloyed by Mr J. Keir, . carrier, whose waggon he/was driving. '

CONCERNING THE INSULATION. No direct testimony is available! to '(how how the Electrical Syndicate’s wire came down. We have received information, however, from various quarters that it was pulled down by a load of furniture which was Heaped very ■ high ,on a van. It is_ stated that the van belonged to the New Zealand Express Company. The report is that whilst passing .beneath the wire, at a point where it : crosses the road for the purpose of being clear of the blasting operations going on in the quarry, the top part of the load of furniture caught the wire and-brought it dow;n. It is assumed that in striking against the ivire the furniture tore off part of the insulation, and that it was this uncovered portion of the wire that Wilson picked up in both hands. ' It is stated that the insulation was only torn off the wire where the obstruction came into contact with it, and that only one or two pieces of it came off. The rest of the insulation is, it is stated, quite sound. The wire did not break, so that the electric current was not interrupted. A THOUSAND VOLT WIRE. Wilson must have received the full force of the live wire, and have been killed instantaneously. The voltage of the wire was 1000 volts from earth. We arp informed that the trolley wires of the City Council trams are 500 volts above earth potential, If the insulation had not been torn off at the point he grasped the wire, the man would not have been killed, hut as it was, and as ho was standing on the earth, the circuit was completed, proving fatal to the victim. EFFECTS OF INSTANTANEOUS ELECTROCUTION. If these facts are correct, the accident ivas due in the first place to the furniture on the previously parsing van coming into contact with the wire, stripping it of the insulation, and throwing it to the ground. The effects of instantaneous electrocution would very likely bo such as noted above. Frequently, there js no after sign, save the burns on .the bands whale the wire touched. We 'are led to understand thaf the wire which caused the fatality was all'right as to its insulation before it was torn down. Had it been within Ayilsoir’s reach as lie sat pn his load of timber and had ho caught hold of it with one hand, it would probably not have killed him, wood not being a conductor. He must., however, have jumped off his cart and handled it whilst Standing on the ground. It may be noted that with dry hoots and dry earth far less shock would bo experienced under the oirc mns tan cos related than in the case of wet b'pots and wet earth. Consequently, . with the recent fine weather com ditions, the tendency would be against Wilson receiving so had a shock. The Electrical Syndicate board of the accident shortly before half-past five on Saturday _ afternoon. Repairs were at once initiated apd-Rho damaged wire was made good and, the wire re-erected by 7 o’clock the same night. POSSIBILITIES OP DAJIA'GB TO INSIJLATION.

The story As it lias reached the Electrical Syndicate's inspector (Mr Mo-. Laohlan) is that after the high load of furniture on the van had dislodged the wire, the latter was left lying bn the ground; the van driving on. Subsequently, the deceased got down to shift the wire, and grasped it with his bare hands. The insulation, Mr McLachlan states, is in first-class order. It is broken through where the load struck it and, hnd it not been broken through, death would not have resulted. Asked if the insulation was broken in any place other that where tho. furniture struck it, Mr McLachlan pointed out that the subsequent rubbing on tne ground might have damaged the insulation in other places. Ho understood that .some seamen of the Alexander had tho wire raised out of tho way within about half an hour after the accident. They took a piece of dry sack and put it round the livo_ wire, and thus one of. them held the wire up while a rope was put round it, and the wire was hauled up on to another pole. The seamen, says Mr McLachlan, carried out this work with good judgment. By this means the road was kept clear. Later on. when he (Mr McLachlan) arrived, the re-erection of the wire was completed. The wire had stretched so much through coming down /to the ground that when it -was restored to its place, a section of about eight feet had to be cut out and the ends connected up. in order to make it taut. The pole was not broken.

An inquest will be held, at 2.30 today.