TIME ran out too quickly to save the life of a distraught Wagga man who climbed an electricity transmission tower and then died from being struck by arcing electricity and falling to the ground, a coroner said.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Deputy state coroner Hugh Dillon on Wednesday delivered his findings from an inquest into the death of a 30-year-old man on March 23, 2014.
The man cannot be named for legal reasons.
The man, upset that his car would be confiscated after being caught doing 100km/h in a 50km/h zone on Tasman Road, walked away from the vehicle and climbed through barbed wire to scale the tall tower. An autopsy found he had a significant concentration of the drug ice in his system, which Mr Dillon said was known to cause users to become highly volatile in some situations.
Two police officers – Senior Constable Matthew Owen and Senior Sergeant Wayne McLachlan – tried to talk the man down. “While Senior Sergeant McLahlan and (the man) were talking, (the man) who had his arms in the air, possibly waving them around, was hit by current arcing from the nearby wires and fell to the ground,” Mr Dillon said.
Mr Dillon asked if the man’s death could have been prevented. “The short answer to this question is that it could not in the time available,” the coroner said.
He said the whole incident took only 12 minutes and on the evidence of a Transgrid manager, it would have taken at least an hour and possibly longer to de-energise the lines and make them safe for electricity crews and emergency services crews to approach the man.
Mr Dillon praised the exemplary conduct of the two police officers and expressed his condolences to the deceased man’s family.