FATAL ACCIDENT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1933, Page 4

FATAL ACCIDENT

MAN KILLED BY SLIP

NEAR BLACKAVATER MINE,

GREYMOUTH, February 27.

Coming down eudd.emy from the side of the gully at 1 p.m. on Saturday, at the enfcraiaee to the 'battery or lowlevel at the Blackwater Mine, a slip of hundreds of tons of debris fatally buried a rakenmn, Richard Vincent (Cyril) Sewell, aged 32 years. The deceased,' who was relieving Mr M. Phelan as Taken)an for the week, was bringing a rake.,; of trucks from the workings; to thy battery, the trucks being drawn by a horse, when just a short distance out of the drive mouth the slip came down without any warning and . completely buried him. Apparently the horse had grasped the ' fact that something was wrong and had jumped away Before being caught by the slip because it was some distance away from th e deceased and uvrs hurried only to its neck, being extricated alive. It took a large party of men. almost three hours to recover the 'body of Sewell and all that D r Marshall, of [Reefton, could do was to pronounce lif e extinct. There was a large rock lying across the back of the deceased but it is not thought that it wag the cause of death, rather it i« thought that it was suffocation.

Th e cause of the slip was undoubtedly the abnormally heavy rains that wer e experienced in that district on Saturday morning, as a tree, and part of the airline were carried away, op the .hill side- when the slip occurred, apparently facilitating the ..fall, The decased, who was a native of 'Reefton, W survived by his mother, Mrs A. WilV, of ißeefton, and a sister, Mrs R. HaTdane, also of Reefton, while Mrs W. Kenning of Blaketown, is an aunt.