Opinion ID: 1726853
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 27

Heading: Identification of Specific Danger

Text: The district court defined the specific danger as cutting into a power line causing an explosion or electrocution. While this describes the mechanism by which the fatal injury occurred, we do not accept it as a description of the specific danger which confronted Hughes when he stepped into the excavation and observed the exposed conduits. Nor do we accept the personal representative's argument that Hughes could not have assumed the risk of injury unless he knew that the specific conduit which he intentionally cut contained electricity. The record supports a reasonable inference that Hughes believed he had identified the conduit which contained the jetter he was attempting to dislodge. The specific danger was that at least one of the exposed conduits in the excavation actually contained electrical current sufficient to cause injury or death. The question, thus, is whether Hughes knew and appreciated this fact when he cut into the conduit in which he believed the jetter was lodged.