FALL FROM TREE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 35, 9 October 1946, Page 5

FALL FROM TREE

POWER LINE ACCIDENT

FRACTURED LEG SUSTAINED His leg fractured in three places above the ankle, Mr E. Le Comte, a well' known resident of Taneatua was admitted to the Whakatane Public Hospital last Thursday following a fall from a tree.

The accident occurred at Waiohau whilst Mr Le Comte was engaged in clearing a high willow tree limb from the path of the power line which he and his party were putting through. The tree was still wet from rain which had been falling some time before, and his foot slipped on the bark. He started to fall but was pulled up short when his trouser cuff caught on a lopped-off branch, the wrench breaking his leg. Hanging upside down he reached up with his axe, and hooking it over a higher branch, pulled himself up, freed his cuff, and jumped some 20 feet to the ground, landing on his good leg. Luckily the ground below him was soft. He called to other members of the party who were in hearing and who came to his assistance. Mr R. Thompson, of Edgecumbe, who also happened to be working in the vicinity administered first aid before the victim was placed on a truck and driven to Whakatane.

He is now reported to be progressing satisfactorily. '