A YOUNG father was electrocuted as he replaced a broken shower unit on Tuesday.
Mr Ben Newman (pictured) died instantly at his parents' home in Orange Hill Road, Prestwich.
It is believed he touched live wires, despite having turned off the electricity supply at the mains. He did not know that the shower was run on a separate circuit.
Mr Newman, who has a son and a daughter, was buried at Agecroft Jewish Cemetery on Wednesday. Around 300 people attended the funeral.
Now, his father Mr Ronald Newman is warning other DIY enthusiasts to "check and check again" when working on electrical systems to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
"Ben turned off the electricity at the mains before working on the shower unit and had even taken off the old system without any problem," said Mr Newman.
"However, we learned that the shower system is powered on separate circuit which was not made safe. This tragedy should never have happened but hopefully others can learn from Ben's death."
Ben (33), who lived with his girlfriend Miss Debbie Rose in Simister Lane, Prestwich, was discovered on the floor of his parents' bathroom by his mother, Mrs Zahva Newman, who telephoned for the ambulance.
A qualified mechanic, Ben was taken to North Manchester General Hospital but, according to his father, he had been killed instantly when he touched the live wires.
Mr Newman said: "Only my wife and Ben were in the house at the time. I had gone out to get a part that he needed to replace the broken shower and was only out for 15 minutes. When I returned Ben was dead." Born in Australia, Ben and his family moved to Israel before coming to Prestwich in 1980. Ben completed a college course studying cooking and woodwork but it was his talent in mechanics that led to his opening a garage in Unsworth, which he ran for three years.
For the last three years he worked with Mayfair Clothing in Prestwich as a sales rep.
Mr Newman said Ben was popular and would often help out his family and friends with DIY jobs around their homes.
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive in Manchester said many older properties feature a small consumer unit for lighting and power but an additional mains box for an additional supply with a separate switch may also be installed.
"Showers do take a fair amount of wattage and often work on a separate mains control," the spokesman explained. "In this particular case the alternative control box was probably not switched off."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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