ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2271, 3 October 1914, Page 10

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

WHARF LABOURER'S DEATH,

3 The death of John White, an old ) waterside-worker, who sustained fatal - l" Jur i c , s n fallm g down a hatchway on - b»a,rd Troopship No. 11 (tho Atheuic) t on Ihursday morning, \r&s the subject . of an inquest conducted yesterday bv ; 'Mr. D: G. A. Cooper, S.M., . ( • l ¥ T ,V fl ; K-- Von Haast appeared on . behalf of the Wellington Wharf La- . bourur3 ; Union,; and Mr. H. E. Evans for. tho Shaw, Savill, and Albion Steam- ; ship Company. : Dr. Fr3-e, naval surgeon on Troopship No. 11, said that he had been called to attend White when, ho ■ was just ■ breathing his last. : .The cause of death '; was a fracture of the skull and disloca- ; the neck. Either-would have sufficed to cause immodiate death. Ihomas Underbill, wharf labourer said he had known White'well. He ; was working with him when tjio acci-: cleut occurred. Thev. had been ordered by the foreman to place the fore-section of the hatches in position, and White, was standing oh one hatch, and witness on the, other. Witness-was rolling the .tarpaulin when he saw White falling feet first down into the hold. He couldnot, say what caused White to fall. Another witness said that White was a very careful workman. ■■ . ■ G. Granborg, stevedore, said he had known; White,'.for ,over fifteen- years. Witness was up on the'captain's bridge "guiding" when he saw White falling down tho hold. How lie lost his footing witness did not; know. The first beam White struck during his fall-'' caused him to go head first to the bottom of the hold. A verdict was returned that John White mot his death as the result of a fracture of the skull cnused through' bis accidentally falling down the hold of Troopship No. 11. SERIOUS BICYCLE ACCIDENT. A serious bicycle.accident occurred in Whitmoro Street yesterday morning in which a lad named Leslie Willis, living in Brooklyn, sustained a fracturo of the skill. Willis failed to notice the approach of a dray, and one of the shafts struck him on.tho head and ho was thrown to the ground , He was picked, up by bystanders in an unconscious condition and taKen to the Hospital. It was reported from that institution last night that tho boy had regained consciousness, and was doing as well as could Lo expected.