MAN ELECTROCUTED.
(By Telegraph. — Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day.
The police have received information that a man named Blackburn, employed by the Waimairi County Council, has been electrocuted. No particulars are available. -Auckland Star, 5/1/1917.
DEATHS.
BLACKBURN. — January 5. John Benson (Ben) dearly loved husband of Kitty Blackburn, of 90 Simeon Street, Spreydon, aged thirty-four years. Accidentally killed. -Lyttelton Times, 6/1/1917.
THE Friends of the late John Benson Blackburn are invited to attend his Funeral, leaving the Residence of his mother, 91, Cutler's Road, Riccarton, on Monday, January 8 at 10.40 a.m., for the Riccarton Churchyard.
J. LAMB AND SON. -Lyttelton Times, 6/1/1917.
ELECTRIC SHOCK AND FATAL FALL.
INQUEST ON J. B. BLACKBURN.
An inquest was conducted by Mr H. W. Bishop, Coroner, to-day concerning the death of John Benson Blackburn, who received an electric shock while working on the Waimairi County Council's overhead lines yesterday morning. Mr Dougall appeared on behalf of the Waimairi County Council, Blackburn's employers.
Evidence of identification was given by Richard Blackburn, a brother.
Thomas Shannon, foreman in charge of the gang, said that he and two others were running wires from Webbs Road to Jeffrey's Road. Blacburn was one of the three, he was an experienced man. He (Shannon) got to the scene a few minutes after the accident. Blackburn was engaged putting a wire over other wires, but he did not know exactly what he was doing when he was killed. .Men on the work received printed instructions.
The Coroner, reading from the instructions, said that a man was supposed to use a body belt whenever he was dealing with a live wire. What kind of a belt was it?
The witness replied that it was a body strap to prevent him from falling if he got a shock.
Who is responsible for seeing that these instructions arc carried out? asked, the Coroner.
"I am." said the witness.
"Well, what, have you got to say to that?'' said the Coroner.
"I gave him a rope,"' said the foreman, "but he was an experienced man and I did not see what he did with the rope."
Mr Dougall said that each man was operating to some extent on his own, and the belt was there, but Blackburn did not put it on. Shannon was paying out wire twenty chains away.
The Coroner said that the foreman should not have been twenty chains away when a dangerous work was being carried out. If he had been near the pole the accident would not have occurred, as he would have ordered Blackburn to put on the belt.
Alfred Daly, linesman, who was working with Blackburn, said that he was an experienced man. Blackburn was running out a wire, taking the end of it over the cross-arms of the pole. Witness was standing on the ground looking on. Blackburn took the wire up the pole, and got right up with his head between the two live wires. The next thing he saw was that he had evidently received a shock, and he fell off the pole, a distance of about twentyfive feet, striking the ladder as he fell with his back. He struck the ground with the back of his head.
What are the usual precautions?'' asked the Coroner.
"We generally take a life-belt."
"Did you notice that he did not have a life-belt?
"Yes."
''Did you recognise the danger?"
''Yes, I told him to be careful."
"Would you have done it?"
"Yes."
"Then you are lucky to be alive." commented the Coroner.
"But the wire was not live" said Daly.
"Then what precautions did he take?" asked the Coroner.
"None, as far as I could see." said the witness.
The Coroner, making a note of the answer, remarked that the inquiries were held not to put the blame on anybody, but mainly to inform the public of the danger. The witness, continuing, said that Blackburn did not speak after he fell. Everything was done for him.
In reply to Mr Dougall, the witness said that he had been warned for being up a pole without a belt.
The Coroner said that it was a case of familiarity breeding contempt.
J. R. Templin, consulting engineer to the Waimairi County Council, said that he had given instructions to the inspector. Mr Dobbie, to have the work done. He saw Blackburn two or three minutes before the accident, and he was then pulling wires along the road with Daly. The voltage was only (figure missing)
"What is fatal?" asked the Coroner.
"Anything over 400 volts." said the witness.
"Up to what is it fairly safe?"
"With the average constitution a shook of 400 would not be fatal."
'"What do the Americans use for execution?"
"They use 400 volts.''
The witness added that the belts were only used to prevent failing. He had only seen the instructions disobeyed once, when he warned Daly. In another case, however, two men from the city had been employed for a week, and had absolutely refused to use the belts, evidently thinking them unprofessional. He had been hard pushed for men, but he let them go as soon as he could.
In reply to Mr Dougall, the witness said that in the city the belts were not used and the men put a sack over the wire, and sat on it, but the wires were heavier.
The Coroner commended the witness for his precautions, and recorded a verdict, that Blackburn had died owing to a fracture of the base of the skull, sustained by falling from an electric pole, while engaged by the Waimairi County Council. -Star, 6/1/1917.
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