LINESMAN ELECTROCUTED

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 63, 21 February 1931, Page 5

LINESMAN ELECTROCUTED

ACCIDENT AT WHANGAREI COUNCIL EXONERATED WHANGAREI, Feb. 19. The adjourned inquest into the death of Arch Hall, who died while acting as electrical linesman in Kamo Road on January 26th, was resumed to-day. Evidence of the Public Works Department’s electrical engineer and the borough electrical engineer showed that tests of the line revealed leakage of 1,300 volts through a binder on the neck of an insulator being exposed, the result of ten years’ use. Evidently deceased, who was standing by doing nothing at the moment, stepped back and made contact with his foot, or part of his body, while his hand, which was over part of his upper body, made contact with the wires, thus getting the leaking current, with fatal results.

'The coroner, Mr. G. N. Morris, S.M., found that deceased had been electrocuted, but said he was quite satisfied that the Whangarei Borough Council had done all in its power to avert the accident. Had the council’s rules been adhered to, this most unfortunate accident would not have occurred.