MAN KILLED IN SHAFT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 575, 30 January 1929, Page 8

MAN KILLED IN SHAFT

NO GUARD RAIL ON LIFT EVIDENCE AT INQUEST Press WELLINGTON. Tuesday. An inquest was held to-day concerning the death on January IS of James Patrick Norris. aged 35, a Public Works Department employee, who was killed in the Tawa Flat tunnel through falling from a lift, which was taking him up the 90ft shaft in order that he might have a slight cut in his hand attended to. The evidence went to show that the lift had no sides to it, and it was suggested that deceased had fainted and was crushed between the cage and the wall, a distance of 9£in. Mr. P. J. O’Regan, who appeared for the widow of the deceased man at the inquest, said: “Had private contractors been employed on this work, they would have had to comply with the regulations, and the accident would not have occurred. It seems an extraordinary thing that Parliament should pass an Act, and that a State concern, the Public Works Department, the largest employer of labour, should be immune from its provisions.” The verdict of the coroner. Mr. E. Page, was that deceased was accidentally killed through falling from the cage to the pit below. From the evidence and the examination by the Court held at the locality, it was shown that the sides of the cage were open, and that a rail about 4ft high was put across when any passenger was ascending or descending, so that the only thing that held a passenger in was this rail. “Counsel quoted from different Acts.” continued the coroner, “and these show the requirements when a. lift is used by passengers, so that the passenger is protected from the sides of the shaft. It is clear, of course, that had such a cage as that been used this accident would not have happened. It seems to me that as men are employed there, and will be moving up and down, a gate should be erected for the cages, and I propose to bring before the Public Works Department the evidence that has been adduced, with a view to its considering or adopting that suggestion.”