BLASTING ACCIDENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 192, 20 September 1909, Page 2

BLASTING ACCIDENT.

Tc Kuiti Government Quany

A serious accident occured on Thursday evening last at the Railway Departments quarry Te Kuiti whireby four workmen sustained injuries. Fortunately no fatalities occured and only one of the men is described as being seriously injured. The names of the injured men are J. Honan, J. Matheson, T. Smith and W. Waka, a Maori.

Honan was the greatest sufferer having one leg broken below the knee, besides sustaining severe cuts and bruises about the head. Of the others J. Matheson received severe cuts and bruises on the legs and body, while T. Smith and Waka escaped with minor injuries. When news of the accident was received at Te Kuiti the ballast train was immediately sent to the quarry Doctor Fullerton being on board. The men were conveyed to Te Kuiti and attended by Doctors Fullerton and Zobel. Honan, whose injuries were the most severe was conveyed to Frankt')n by the midnight express and taken to Hamilton Hospital. At latest advices all the men were doing as well as could be expected.

The cause of the accident is difficult to explain. The men were engaged at hammer and drill work, it being the custom of the ganger to send four experienced men to put in holes and charge them preparatory to firing the charges at five o'clock, when work in the quarry ceased for the day. This course was pursued on Thursday and the holes would have been fired in the ordinary way in about ten minutes, when the explosion took place. It is possible that the heat created by boring the holes in hard ground was sufficient to explode the charges, and unless this theory is accepted the premature explosion seems difficult to account for. The period immediately following the explosion must have been a thrilling time for the men, who were pinned down by the rock blown oOt by the explosion. An enormous block of rock in the face had been loosened and was in danger of falling, and had this occurred the men would have all been crushed to death. Prompt measures were taken by t' e ganger to have the rock tommed up with rails before the work of extricating the men was undertaken, and the men were rescued their perilous position by their mates.