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Helnl Radio-Television News Service
9/13/50
LIVE WIRE ELECTROCUTES FATHER, SON, SETTING UP TV AERIAL
A father and his son were killed by electric shocks and a daughter was badly burned shortly after noon Saturday, Sept* 9> in a freakish accident growing out of their attempt to install a televi¬ sion antenna in the rear of their home at Lake Success, L.I.
The dead are Charles Rutter, 43 years old, a superintendent of maintenance for the New York City Housing Authority, and his son, Charles, Jr., 19; Adelaide, 17, the daughter, was seriously burned about the hands, legs and chest before she was heroically pulled from a live guide wire by Patrolmen John Quicker of the Lake Success pol¬ ice. Mrs. Adelaide Rutter, the mother, was reported suffering from shock and hysteria.
The accident was the aftermath of a Joint family effort to install a newtype antenna that presumably would have improved recep¬ tion on the family's television set.
Police said the family had Just taken down the conventional roof antenna and were preparing to set the new aerial firmly in place in the back yard. The new antenna, designed by young Rutter, a television student, consisted of a 29'2-foot metal mast with a 52foot crossbar.
Mr. Rutter and his son were engaged in fixing the mast firm¬ ly into the ground, and Adelaide held one of the guide wires that were to make the mast secure. Suddenly the mast tipped and fell against a high tension wire of the Long Island Lighting Company. The wire is one of the primary distribution lines and carries 13>000 volts. It is about twenty feet from the ground at the rear of the house. As the metal mast touched the wire there was a blinding flash. The two men apparently were killed instantly.
When the police arrived, Patrolman Quicker observed Ade¬ laide unable to let go of the guide wire. He ran to his car, pulled out some old newspapers and pulled her from the wire. Units of the Sixth Precinct Squad, the Fire Department, and other police squads worked in vain for two hours to revive Mr. Rutter and his son.
The high tension lines in this and other new developments throughout the country, it was learned, are run through the rear yards of the homes rather than along the street on which the homes front.
The accident recalled a similar one in May, 1948, at the Anthony Harris home in Strathmore, a development in Manhasset, L.I., where two television service men lost their lives when a strong wind blew the antenna mast against a high tension line.
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