Live wire from billboard electrocutes bull

COIMBATORE: It was a miraculous escape for residents on PF Staff Quarters street in Peelamedu on Wednesday morning after the exposed portion of a power cable connected to an advertising board adjacent to where the lane meets the arterial Avinashi Road reportedly became live and electrocuted a bull.
The bull, lugging a cart loaded with a water tanker, came in contact with the live cable when it accidentally stepped on a puddle formed over the exposed portion of the wire and died on the spot.The bullock cart driver R Mohanraj jumped out in the nick of time. The private advertising agency representatives later settled the matter after they arrived at a compromise with Mohanraj and his father N Ramasamy to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation for the dead animal.
"My son was lucky as he managed to jump out just in time but we could not save the animal. We believe it was pure luck that none of the residents and pedestrians got hurt," said Ramasamy, owner of the bull.
The incident occurred at around 8.45 am and power supply was suspended in the area within minutes. Police and electricity board officials from East Town Peelamedu station rushed to the spot. EB officials claimed that normally underground cables to illuminate advertisement boards should be dug at a depth of more than one foot. Peelamedu police confirmed the leakage in the power cable used to illuminate the advertisement board had caused the accident.
"It had rained last night and there was some leakage in the power cable. The animal came into contact with the live wire and got electrocuted," said C Karthikeyan, Inspector, Peelamedu Police Station.
Electricity board officials said a report will be prepared on the incident as per the protocol but said that since advertisement boards get power from one single source which is looped to other billboards in the vicinity, the private advertisement agency and its electrical contractor should maintain the line.
"It is an outgoing line. There is one single power source which is maintained by the electricity board and the remaining connections taken from this point are outgoing connections and it should be maintained by the private parties involved," said an electricity board official who had visited the spot.
Residents on the lane claimed that the underground cable was not laid properly which resulted in the mishap. "The bull actually saved our lives. If any of us had stepped on that puddle then it would have been a terrible tragedy," said Renuka Selvaraj, a resident.
The private advertisement agency officials claimed that it was a simple incident and they had paid compensation to the owner of the bull. They also stated that there was no leakage at the point and were not in a position to clearly state the reason behind the mishap.