Peter J. Wallace attempted to save a woman and her child from a fatal fall, Squantum, Massachusetts, May 21, 1971. The woman, carrying her baby daughter, climbed the wet steel structure of a water tower to a girder 34 feet above ground level. Wallace, 40, telephone foreman, ran to the tower, his shoes becoming soaked from the wet grass. He climbed to the woman and tried to persuade her to descend to the ground. Paying no attention to Wallace, the woman renewed her ascent of the tower. Wallace grasped her; but she kicked free and climbed to a girder 65 feet above the ground. Wallace followed and maneuvered cautiously to a position beside her. Wrapping one arm around a diagonal brace of the tower, Wallace took hold of the woman while talking soothingly to her. She struggled with Wallace, pushing and kicking him. The woman then slipped from Wallace’s grasp and fell to the ground with the baby. Both died.
52071 – 5858
52071-5858