ACCIDENT AT THE WHARF.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2369, 9 December 1908, Page 4

ACCIDENT AT THE WHARF.

AN UNLUCKY BOILER.

A VEHICLE SMASHED

A boiler, weighing about 9 tons, brought from Auckland last week for instillation at the Haiti brickworks, has already been the cause of two accidents before it has been put into use. The first accident occurred in Auckland, where a man lost his life and another was injured for life.while the boiler w;is being loaded for ehipment, and yesterday morning & driver named Dunstone, employed by Messrs M. F. Bourke and Co., carriers, had a.narrow escape from death. The heart* piece of machinery had been loaded on to a rather lightly built lorry. on the wharf opposite Childers Road, and six horses attached to the vehicle proceeded to draw the load to its destination. The driver, Dunstone, was standing on a narrow cross-bar between the shafts when, while attempting to cross the railway line, the wheel's of the lorry ■skidded, the weight breaking the near side front axle at the-wheel end. »

The whole load then came to the ground with ia- crash, bringing one of the horses in the shafts down with it. Dunstone was 'lucky enough, by promptly jumping, to get clear of the falling boiler, but had he not displayed prompt presence of mind would probably have rolled underneath tlio load and been killed, or at -least seriously injured. As it happened, neither the driver nor any of the horses were injured, but the lorry was badly smashed. Fortunately, the boiler " was firmly roped to the vehicle, for had it got loose it would assuredly have roiled into the river, and coiV.d only have been recovered with diffieultv.