Queensland Rail staff at the Tennyson train yards near where a man was electrocuted on Saturday. Source: News Corp Australia
A MAN has died after receiving a massive electric shock while attempting to graffiti trains at a Brisbane railway yard.
The 26-year-old man from Greenbank was attempting to graffiti rolling stock at the Tennyson rail shunting yard on Saturday night when he touched electric wires suffering horrific burns, police say.
While scaling a container car he brushed against the wires, suffering deep thickness burns to 90 per cent of his body.
The man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital in a critical condition but died on Sunday morning.
Police have interviewed a 19-year-old man who was with the man in the yard but have not laid any charges.
Regional duty officer Inspector Daniel Bragg said the powerlines carried 450,000 volts.
“When police arrived the ambulance was already [at the scene],” he told the ABC.
“They were advised that two males had entered the railway yard — one of them had climbed onto a commercial container that was on the line and came within the proximity of an overhead line and was electrocuted.
“What I’m advised is that the staff at the shunting facility here observed a flash or perhaps a flame, and they went over and they observed the male person to be sitting on top of the carriage near the power line.”
Inspector Bragg said the man’s friend phoned for an ambulance.
“It’s just a terrible, terrible thing and police hate going to jobs like this and the sad thing about it is this could be so easily avoided,” he said.
It is the second fatality involving train graffiti in as many months.
A man was killed at Runcorn, in Brisbane in late September while he was train surfing and attempting to spray graffiti on a carriage.
source: theaustralian.com.au
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