Painter died as ladder hit 11,000-volt power line
A PAINTER was killed by an 11,000-volt shock when his aluminium ladder touched an overhead power line, an inquiry has heard.
Martin Buchan, 37, screamed as smoke came off him before he fell to the ground, his friend and workmate said.
Mark Tait, 44, told a fatal accident inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court he was only feet away at the time.
He said both he and father-of-one Mr Buchan were aware there were power lines where they were working but might have been distracted because they were talking.
Mr Tait said he had been traumatised by what had happened and was angry at the circumstances of the accident on April 2 last year at East Leys Lodge, Errol, Perthshire.
He said yesterday that having been encouraged to go to art college by Mr Buchan, he had found it difficult to paint anything for months after the accident.
‘At first I kept seeing Martin’s face coming into things,’ he added.
‘I was just seeing faces with flames coming out of them.’
Perth Sheriff Court heard the two men had extended a three-part ladder to its 33ft length to reach the highest parts of a building on which they were to work. Mr Tait said: ‘We discussed the fact the cable was going across the garden.’
He said he was holding one end of the ladder steady with his foot as Mr Buchan, from Dundee, pushed up the other end – with the ladder almost upright when it struck one of the lines. ‘I didn’t realise I was right underneath them,’ he said. ‘Maybe because we were talking, that’s why I didn’t realise I was underneath them – that’s what angered me.’
He said that he had been alerted not to touch the ladder by Mr Buchan’s screaming.
He added: ‘I looked up at him and saw the smoke coming off him. I felt tingling coming up my legs. Because I saw Martin I took my foot off and kicked it… Martin fell one way and the ladder fell the other way.’
Mr Tait said he called the emergency services and was instructed how to give his friend CPR.
The inquiry was told the overhead cables were appropriately sited but were at a height of 20-23ft – much lower than the extended ladder.
Sheriff William Wood said: ‘Mr Buchan seems to have been a working man, a highly skilled painter and decorator. He went out one morning to do a job of work and, due to a moment’s inattention, suffered tragic consequences.’
The sheriff said he would issue his written findings at a later date.
‘Tingling coming up my legs’