ACCIDENTS

Grey River Argus, 16 September 1937, Page 5

ACCIDENTS

! Tunnel Collapses i * YOUNG MAN KILLED. [Per Press Association]. WAIROA, September 15. I A fatality occurred at a nwtal dump 1 near the railway bridge at Awamate, late yesterday afternoon, when Harold Clifford Cocks, better known as Eric Daken, 21, who resided with his mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Daken, of Kopu Road, Wairoa, who was engaged in loading a truck with metal, became trapped when the roof of the tunnel in which he was working collapsed. He was buried in shingle and broken timbers. Cocks was employed by Smith Bros., contractors to the Public Works Department. who are operating a shingledredging plant at Awamate. When the accident occurred, Cocks was engaged in loading shingle into some trucks. A cutting has been constructed and roofed with timber, and the metal is conveyed across the river by a wire rope, and dropped on to the i'Oof of the tunnel, beneath which the trucks are run and loaded by means of a chute in the roof. The whole of the overhead structure collapsed, without warning, and Cocks had no time to jump clear, being trapped in the truck, over which tons of shingle and timber fell. W. Smith, a member of the firm of Smith Bros., who was standing nearby, had a narrow escape, being buried in shingle up to his hip. It was some time before Cocks could be extricated. When Cocks was eventually freed, he was found to be dead. It is thought that death was instantaneous.

Typist Killed AT PETONE RAILWAY STATION WELLINGTON, September 15. An attempt to board a moving train at Petone, this morning, cost Nancy Watson her life. The fatality occurred at 8.24. She caught at a carriage, missed, and was hit by the next one. Severel carriages passed over her body. She was eighteen years old, and was employed by Stone, Son and Co. as a typistc.