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Show LINEMAN HASBAD ACCIDENT Claude Blanchard Touches 5,000 Voltage Light Wire and Falls Thirty-five Feet. Is Still Alive, but Unconscious. Is Badly Burned, and Has Fractured Skull. Claude Illauchard, while stringing cable for the Indcndeut Telephone Co In this city, met w Ith an accident Wednesday afternoon that may jet. result re-sult in his death. His foot came In contact with an electric wire belonging belong-ing to the Hercules sjstein. and he received re-ceived a charge of 5,000 volts. Following Fol-lowing the shock he tumbled into the Hercules wires and then to thegiound thlrtj-tlvc feet below. He was burned burn-ed honibly on the shoulder and side, and suffered a fractured skull and possible pos-sible internal Injuries from ttiu fall. When picked up he was bleeding at the mouth and e)cs and was as black as a hat. The unfortunate fellow was taken to the Budge hospital where he has since hovered between life and death. Although lie has not yet retutned to consciousness It Is now believed that he ma) possibly pull through The accident happened at the corner cor-ner of Main and Center streets The )oung fellow was in his car attached to the Independents wires These wires arc grounded and when his foot aedrtentlv touched a Hercules wire below, the circuit was completed. He received a tenlble shock, and In his fall liungon the othei Hercules wires for a very short space of time, but sutllclenll) long to be terribly burned. Hlanchard alighted on the right I side of his head and while this resulted result-ed in a fracture of the skull the fall undoubtedly saved his life It Is gen-crall) gen-crall) considered that 5,000 volts produces pro-duces a shock equal to death. The fall, however, knocked some of the electric juice from him and started tilings going Hlanchard is jet In the twenties, with a home in Pes Moines Iowa, and isa)oung fellow pretty well liked Ills father lias been notified and Is expected expect-ed here Immediately. After the accident crowds on the street discussed It heatedly, told how It might have been prevented, etc, and the Hercules people came In lor a great deal of condemnation. Tiik ItKiTiu.H'AN doesn't presume to Ur.ow all ihe wlij sand wherefoies, but the statement of the Heicules people Is tht the Independent people had been warned more than once of the great danger of these high voltage wires, etc.. and that the workmen generally understood. Those who were terribly Indignant because these wires arc not Insulated did not understand, of course.that insulation does no good on the wires carr)lng heavy voltage. The Independent wires are supposed to be three leet above Hercules wires in order that the two may not con-lllct. con-lllct. Whether they were that distance dis-tance apart at the time of the accident acci-dent is a question Better Chances. At a Ulte hourjesterda) evening in-qutty in-qutty revealed that there had been little or no change In the joung man's condition, but the fact that he is alive at this time gives rise to a strong hopo that ho may pull through The statement was nnde that on Wednesday Wednes-day his chances were one in a thousand, thou-sand, now It may be one in a hundred The left shoulder Is burned badly, and the right side, whcie Ins working paraphernalia hung, Is badly burned The fracture Is said to bo at the base of the skull, such a one that an operation opera-tion can not be performed. During Friday all kinds of reports of the young man rcturiiingtoconsclousncss, his death, etc., weie rife, but the facts are as stated above. |