Police were trying to determine whether a man was electrocuted Wednesday night when he stood on an iron electrical access panel next to a sidewalk, then touched a metal street light pole.

The 42-year-old Honolulu man, identified as Michael Perron Jr., was taken in critical condition to a hospital after the 9:30 p.m. incident at the intersection of Kapi'olani and University avenues.

He was later pronounced dead.

A witness told police the man suffered an electrical shock from the access box, which is just off the crosswalk, in a patch of grass next to the street light pole.

Experts said that if the access box had live wiring with faulty insulation, then touching the street light while standing on the box would have caused electricity to course through the man's body.

At the time of the incident, it was raining hard, said Ken Amaral, Ala Wai Plaza Skyrise condominium resident manager. Amaral, whose building is across the street from where the incident happened, said he saw paramedics attempting to give the victim cardio-pulmonary resuscitation before taking him away.

He also said police in the area told him the man had been "shocked."

"It's horrible," Amaral said.

Meanwhile, police and paramedics said they could not confirm the witness account, and an autopsy yesterday did not provide conclusive results. The Department of the Medical Examiner said yesterday that a cause of death for Perron was being deferred pending further investigation.

Both the electrical wiring box in the sidewalk and the street light believed to be at the center of the investigation are city property. Crews yesterday were inspecting the box and others like it in the area. But they did not cordon off the box in question.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said he had no details on what the crews found while inspecting the box, or how many access boxes were inspected yesterday. Such boxes, though, are found on sidewalks all over the island.

City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell said, in a statement, that the "Department of Facility Maintenance is investigating the incident, and we are awaiting the results of the additional studies to be performed by the medical examiner." He also offered condolences to Perron's family.

Hawaiian Electric Co. said their wiring was not involved in the incident.

This would not be the first such case. An Internet search found several instances of pedestrians elsewhere being injured when they walked on such boxes.

The Kapi'olani death had many pedestrians spooked yesterday, and some asking whether other access boxes with live wires could prove dangerous. James Gawel, 21, said he walks in the area where the incident happened two to four times a day on his way to classes or elsewhere.

"It could have been me. It could have been anybody," he said.

Pedestrian advocacy groups also raised concerns about the incident yesterday, saying if the witness account turns out to be true, then the city could have a major problem on its hands. Justin Fanslau, spokesman for One Voice for Livable Islands, said he has countless times done what the victim did - stood on an access box and leaned against a pole.

"It's just so scary," he said.

Fanslau and Jackie Boland, associate state director for AARP, which has pushed hard in recent years for safer pedestrian pathways, said the case illustrates how pedestrian safety means more than putting in sidewalks.