Grieving mother alleges cover-up

The mother of a Rotorua linesman killed by live wires has accused power company staff of forging his signature to cover up negligent safety practices.

UnitedNetworks trainee linesman Darron Thomas, 32, died on the job after coming into contact with live wires.

His mother, Kathryn Phillips, has claimed at an inquest into her son's death that a signature on a form to confirm his attendance at a mandatory safety meeting was forged.

She alleges the signature was forged to cover up the fact her son had not attended.

However, power company staff say Mr Thomas was at the meeting and signed the form.

Mr Thomas died on March 22, 2001, while working under live 11,000 volt lines in Ngakuru, near Rotorua.

He was helping erect wires on the lower cross arms of the power poles and climbed higher than he was instructed or allowed to. He was electrocuted after grabbing live wires.

Rotorua Coroner David Dowthwaite has reserved his finding into the cause of Mr Thomas' death.

It has been three years since the first part of the inquest was held in March 2002.

Mrs Phillips said since then, she had paid an expert forensic document examiner from Australia to look at the signature.

Another examiner who worked for the police also inspected it and both said they doubted the authenticity of the signature.

Mrs Phillips claimed the initials were so unlike her son's that she believed they were forged to cover up the fact he was not at the meeting. She said if her son had not been at the meeting he would not have known about the hazards on the job, including live power lines.

Foreman Adrian Jack said he had no idea why Mr Thomas climbed above his ladder.

"It would have been an effort to climb from the top of the ladder, around the first cross arm, belt himself back on to the pole and grab the live wire."

Only trained linesmen were allowed within 300mm of any live 11,000 volt line and it was a specialist area of work, Mr Jack said.

Mr Jack and two other workmates gave evidence during the inquest after refusing to answer questions during a police investigation ordered by the coroner after the 2002 hearing.

All three workers said they and Mr Thomas had been at the required safety meeting at the site prior to starting the job. Two of them said they saw him sign a form to say he was at the meeting.

Mr Jack said he told Mr Thomas three times the lines were live.

Mrs Phillips said her son would not have climbed higher than he was supposed to if he had known the lines were live.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)