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A soldier home on leave from Iraq died early Saturday when he was electrocuted while trying to assist a motorist involved in a traffic accident in Somerset County.

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Dale Martin Hardiman, 39, of Stoneycreek Township, stopped with his wife, Christine, at 12:48 a.m. for an unidentified motorist whose vehicle struck a utility police on Stutzmantown Road in the township.

As Hardiman attempted to aid the motorist, he came in contact with downed electrical wires, according to his parents, Ralph and Virginia Hardiman, of Carnegie, and state police at Somerset.

"He was being a good Samaritan," Virginia Hardiman said.

Her son suffered a fatal heart attack and was pronounced dead at 2:01 a.m. at Somerset Hospital, said Coroner Wallace Miller.

The condition of the motorist was not available.

Hardiman was serving with the Army National Guard 103rd Company C, Philadelphia, 876th Engineering Battalion, said funeral director Jim Kight of Halverson Funeral Home, Somerset.

Hardiman had survived military service in Iraq since December and was home on a two-week leave, his parents said. He was due to return to Iraq on Tuesday and had 45 days left to serve, according to his family.

A 1985 graduate of Chartiers Valley High School and a corrections officer at the State Correctional Institution-Camp Hill, Hardiman is survived by his parents; his wife, Christine; two brothers, Ralph Thomas Hardiman, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Shawn Edward Hardiman, of Pittsburgh; and a sister, Pamela Lindberg, who is stationed with an unspecified branch of the U.S. military in Germany, according to Kight.

Hardiman was also a member of Stoystown American Legion Post 257, Kight said.

Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department and Somerset Ambulance assisted at the scene.

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