A Hamilton man who died at a Northland camping ground on Wednesday morning had cut through a power cable with a Leatherman tool while it was still connected to the mains.
Matthew Smith, 26, had removed the cable from a noisy caravan he was hoping to silence at the Whangaruru Beachfront Campground, 50km north of Whangarei, but was electrocuted when he sliced through it, according to emergency services.
Hikurangi Volunteer Fire Brigade deputy chief officer Trevor Gallagher said they received the call at 3.10am.
"When we got there we found that there was a deceased male who had electrocuted himself. He'd done that simply by trying to cut through a live cable going to a caravan from a camping ground power box.
"The cable initially had been taken out of the caravan socket and he had then proceeded to cut the plug off the lead.
"There had been some music involved and obviously he was a little upset that it was still loud.
"The irony of it is that the music was coming from a radio powered by batteries," Mr Gallagher said.
"It was a pretty drastic move to be cutting it. I feel sorry for his family. It's a huge tragedy and something that should never have happened."
A young man who moved Mr Smith from the cable also suffered a minor electric shock in the process, Mr Gallagher said.
It was unclear how many volts the power cord carried, but it was thought to be around 240 volts.
Mr Smith had worked as a lighting technician at Waikato Sound and Lighting for the past five years.
When the tragedy occurred Mr Smith had been camping with Richard Voschezang and his father in what was an annual seven-year tradition.
He had become part of the family over the years, Mr Voschezang said.
"I've known him for the last 15 years, pretty much every day I saw him," he said.
"Matt was the kind of person who you could sit down and talk for hours on end with. If you ever needed any help he was straight there. He was more than happy to help out."
The trio had been at the campsite for a week and a-half after touring around Northland and heading up to Cape Reinga, Mr Voschezang said.
They had been spending their days exploring the area and taking walks and in the evenings playing games of 500, reading and retiring to bed, he said.
However, a group of rowdy teenagers on the site next door to theirs had been wearing Mr Smith down.
"Over the course of those three nights they had been told pretty much every night to turn it down but they failed to do so.
"Matt [decided to] do something about it, so at about 12.30am he went over and disconnected the power and then at 3am when these guys came back from their beach walk they found him and started screaming.
"I went across and did my first-aid...but he was already well gone at that point."
Mr Voschezang said his friend had left the tent they were sharing while he was asleep.
"We went to bed at 10.30pm, but we couldn't get to sleep obviously. I sort of drifted off and then [heard] Matt muttering, 'I'm going to pull the power out' so I went back to sleep."
A co-worker at Waikato Sound and Lighting Phil Brown said Mr Smith was a "pretty honest and reliable guy [who] didn't do anything crazy outside of work"
"He must have been really tired...he's not the sort of guy to just go and cut a cable.
"Working in our industry, he normally would never do something like that...it's completely out of character for him to do it. He's site-safe certified as well."
Mr Voschezang said he was going to stay on until Saturday, the day the trio were originally due to return back to Hamilton.
"I just needed a few days to myself so we decided to stay up here," he said. A local Kaumatua was due to bless the site last night.
Mr Smith's brother Christopher Smith, 24, was last night gathered with friends at Richard Voschezang's home in Hamilton.
His parents Andrew and Alice Smith were too upset to speak about their son when approached yesterday.
A funeral had been planned for Monday afternoon at the Horsham Downs Church in Hamilton. His death has been referred to the coroner.
- Brendan Manning of NZME. News Service
