By SCOTT MacLEOD
Levi Joynes left home with five waterbombs the night he was stunned senseless by 33,000 volts.
The 8-year-old walked from his Snells Beach home, north of Auckland, to an electricity substation on Dawson Rd. At 5pm on Sunday, Levi and a young friend scaled its 3.5m concrete wall
defences.
Whether the waterbombs played a role in what happened next is not clear, but Levi received a jolt which threw him clean out of the sub-station onto surrounding grass - a distance of 3.5m vertically and up to 3m laterally.
Police and the firm that runs the substation said yesterday that the incident was a warning to parents that they must tell their children about the dangers of electricity.
Emergency staff said Levi was knocked unconscious, broke a collarbone from the fall, and was burned over 25 per cent of his body. Power was cut to surrounding homes.
Last night Middlemore Hospital staff said Levi was stable, and had been shifted from intensive care to a surgical ward.
It was understood he would be given plastic surgery to one of the burns.
Police said they had no concerns about security at the substation, but visited Warkworth Primary to tell Levi's schoolmates what happened.
The substation is run by UnitedNetworks, which will look at boosting security there and possibly remove a trellis that could have been used to gain access.
Health and safety manager Doug Hill said parents must warn their children to "stay clear and stay alive" when dealing with electricity. Power lines, substations and roadside electricity boxes were safe when left alone, but had to be treated with respect.
The website emedicine.com said a shock from more than 500 volts could cause serious injury.
However, the type of current (alternating or direct), the path of electricity through the body and the voltage were some of many variables that affected injury.
Auckland University lecturer Scott Parkins said the number of amps of current played a bigger factor in physical injury from electric shock than the number of volts.
Dr Parkins said amps were a measure of the rate at which electrons flowed past a given point, and volts were related to the force driving the electrons.
