Elmer L. Slappy died of electric shock from attempting to prevent Eugene Brown and three other persons in an automobile from driving into a high tension wire, Edison, Georgia, January 20, 1963. While driving along a highway at night in drizzling rain, Slappy, 20, student, noticed that a power line which extended diagonally across the road had become detached from its insulator and had sagged to within 46 inches of the pavement near the center of the road. Slappy stopped his vehicle just beyond the line, which carried 7,200 volts of electricity, and then flagged down a youth in another automobile approaching from the opposite direction. The youth turned his vehicle so that the headlights shone on the sagging line. Brown’s automobile then approached at about 20 m.p.h. Slappy ran toward it, waving and shouting as he passed under the line. Brown, 21, farmhand, was concentrating on driving in the rain and did not notice Slappy or the power line. The windshield of Brown’s automobile struck the line but did not break it. It snapped back against Slappy’s chest and then swung away. Brown stopped his vehicle beyond the line as Slappy fell to the ground. He started to rise but then rolled into a ditch. Slappy was removed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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