Broken electrical wires were probably the main cause in the tragic electrocution of a 12-year-old boy in a Quarry Bay housing estate last year.
Ho Wai-yip, of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, yesterday told Coroner Peter Charles White that the accident was also caused by unduly high earthing resistance that prevented effective earthing of the ventilation fans.
Primary Five student Cheuk Lee-lung died at Nam Fung Sun Chuen in Quarry Bay on May 26 last year. He had been playing football with friends when one of the boys kicked the ball into a light well on the podium.
The boys entered an unlocked ventilation room to gain access to the light well. Lee-lung was electrocuted when he touched a metal bar while using a metal ladder to retrieve the football.
He was left hanging by a leg from the ladder for 20 minutes before being lifted down by firemen.
Photographic evidence submitted by the department showed a golden-brown-coloured wire bore a cutting mark.
