FATAL ELETCRIC SHOCK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19834, 25 June 1934, Page 8

FATAL ELETCRIC SHOCK

WIRELESS MAST FALLS ON POWER LINE

TRAGEDY IN A GISBORNE SUBURB

By Telegraph—Press Association GISBORNE, June 24. As a result of the fall of a steel wireless mast against a high tension power line yesterday afternoon, Ralph Grey Bradley, aged 19, son of Mr Walter Gladv/in Bradley, Valley Road, Mangapapa, just outside the borough boundary, received an eiectric shock and died almost instantaneously. With his brother, Arthur Gladwin Bradley, 18 years, and another youth, Bradley was engaged erecting a mast on the farm of his parents. The mast consisted of two twenty foot lengths of steel piping and wire guy ropes. A hole had been dug in the ground and the mast was supported against a nearby tree. When all v/as in readiness for its erection, the mast by some means slipped and fell across a power line carrying 6600 volts. Bradley had hold of one of the guy ropes at the time and received the fuU charge being killed almost instantaneously. His brother suffered a severe shock. He was considerably burned and L» confined to bed. The third youth, who was wearing rubber boots at the time, escaped unhurt.