By CATHY ARONSON
An emergency care specialist says an Auckland teenager is lucky to be alive after he received a 25,000-volt shock from train overhead powerlines in Ohakune.
Karl Jorgensen, of Mt Albert, was in a serious but stable condition with severe burns in Middlemore Hospital last night.
He was transferred from Hutt
Hospital yesterday to be close to his family.
Mr Jorgensen had climbed on to a stationary train in Ohakune early on Tuesday while celebrating his 18th birthday with six friends.
The jolt from the overhead powerlines set his clothes on fire, threw him 4m to the ground and created a blue-green flash visible for miles.
Ohakune policeman Constable Hamish Milne said medical staff on the scene believed that Mr Jorgensen had been caught by an arc of electricity rather than by making direct contact with the powerline, which is normally fatal.
Middlemore emergency medicine specialist Bhavani Peddinti said even an arc could kill.
The temperature of the arc could have been between 500 and 2500 degrees Celsius. The shock would have travelled through the whole body, damaging vital organs.
Dr Peddinti said the shock would also have thrown Mr Jorgensen, causing an intense muscle spasm and burning. Kidney failure, fractures and blood injuries could have resulted.
If contact had been direct, cardiac or respiratory arrest and brain damage would have been likely.
Dr Peddinti said severe burns could become infected and cause hypothermia through loss of heat.
"The entire body is cranked up to an unimaginable heat from top to bottom. If there is direct contact, there is a extremely high chance of sudden death."
Ohakune Fire Service spokesman Max Martins said the accident could have happened because visitors to Ohakune were not used to electric trains and did not realise the danger.
Electric trains run only between Palmerston North and Taumarunui.
Tranz Rail spokeswoman Nicola McFaull said that 21 warning signs were posted around the rail yard.
Extra warning signs were installed less than three years ago after a Scottish tourist, 25-year-old Daniel Peter Phippin, was electrocuted at the same rail yard when he touched the overhead lines.
" People are not meant to be on the rail network," said Nicola McFaull. "It's extremely dangerous. We can only do so much to warn them. The rest is up to them."
She said police should prosecute anyone caught on the tracks to reinforce the danger message.
Constable Milne said some people would rather walk 50m across the railyard, which runs through Ohakune, than walk 300m to the underpass or overbridge.
A friend of Mr Jorgensen was on the train and has been arrested and charged with breaching the Railway Safety and Corridor Maintenance Act, he said.
Mr Jorgensen had not been charged yet and the police were waiting for his condition to improve before he was interviewed.
The relevant charge carries a maximum $20,000 fine and/or six months in prison.
By CATHY ARONSON
An emergency care specialist says an Auckland teenager is lucky to be alive after he received a 25,000-volt shock from train overhead powerlines in Ohakune.
Karl Jorgensen, of Mt Albert, was in a serious but stable condition with severe burns in Middlemore Hospital last night.
He was transferred from Hutt
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