Glover death blamed on contractor wiring, report says

The electrocution death of Montana Vistas baseball buff Deshun Glover resulted from faulty electrical wiring in Reid Park caused by the actions of a contractor, a consulting engineer’s report to the city of Tucson found.

The city of Tucson released the report, done by forensic engineer George J. Hogge, principal electrical engineer of Engineering Forensics Experts. It says Fluoresco Lighting and Signs improperly installed electrical equipment in September 2007.

The report also says a failure in Tucson Electric Power (TEP) equipment contributed to the problem when it “prevented the 200 amp circuit breaker from tripping and eliminating the hazard” on July 25. TEP says that finding is wrong.

Fluoresco officials were working on a public comment, a spokeswoman said, but had not made one available by press time.

Eight-year-old Deshun, the bat boy for a Sahuarita baseball team, died that evening in a puddle of rainwater near one of the Reid Park baseball fields where the team had been playing. A lightning storm had ended play.

The report concludes that a ground fault, something like a short circuit, was created when a damaged wire that had been repaired touched the steel lid of an electrical box. The cause of the insulation failure, the report said “was improper installation techniques by Fluoresco workmen who performed repairs in the junction box during September of 2007. The Failure of Fluoresco workmen to eliminate that hazard was clearly well below the minimum standard of care for a professional tradesman.”

The report said that the box had silted in so much that when the wire was repaired and set back on the silt, there was not any space above the wire, and the box lid rested directly on the wire. Evidence in the box showed this had been the case for months, the report said. A photo in the report shows the exposed edge of a metallic splice in the repaired wire.

Regarding the failure of the circuit breaker, TEP spokesman Art McDonald said the electric company had no liability whatsoever and had informed the city early Thursday that there “errors” in the report, which was issued late Thursday morning.

McDonald said it was actually city-owned electrical equipment located within a TEP facility that caused the failure of the circuit breaker and that problem was the responsibility of the city.

The Glover family referred comment on the report to their attorney, Matthew Cunningham of Phoenix, who was not available.

The city press release said the report has been supplied to TEP, Fluoresco and members of the Glover family and noted that TEP has expressed disagreement with facts, finding, conclusions of the report and has offered to discuss the report with the city.

The Tucson press release said the city is willing to discuss the report with TEP and said that “if any modifications to the report are made after such discussions, those modifications will be released to the public at a later date.”

Tucson city special counsel Daryl Audilett said that was done because the city wanted to get the report out to the family and public and gave courtesy copies to the family, TEP and Fluoresco on Wednesday.

“The lightning that evening did not have any causal effect on this accident,” the report said.

Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Parks said an autopsy found that the cause of death was electrocution.

The 58-page report cost $42,000 so far, a spokeswoman for Tucson Assistant City Manager Richard Miranda said.

Meanwhile, relatives and members of the Sahuarita baseball community on Oct. 4 planted a tree in Deshun’s memory next to the Sahuarita High School varsity baseball diamond. Deshun’s brother, Shawn, plays on the varsity team and Deshun was a constant presence at varsity baseball games.

Deshun’s brother Charles said, “We did a tree planting at the Sahuarita High School baseball field. Everybody sat around and talked about old times. Our hope is the tree will provide some shade for the spectators of the sport that Deshun loved. Where we planted the tree was exactly where he used to clean up after games.”

Those present discussed erecting a plaque in Deshun’s memory near the tree, Charles said.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738