Blasting Tragedy Strangely Re-enacted

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 672, 25 May 1929, Page 16

Blasting Tragedy Strangely Re-enacted

SECOND MAN HURT ACCIDENT DURING INQUEST Press Association TAIHAPE, Friday. The tragic error which ended In the death of William James Bayne, aged 42, farmer, of Taihape, while blasting logs, was told before the coroner today, when, by an irony of circumstance, another man met with an identical accident, happily without fatal results. The death of Mr. Bayne, aged 42, who was killed by an explosion while blasting stumps on his property at Raketapauma, near Taihape, yesterday afternoon, was the subject of an inquest before the district coroner, Mr. J. P. Aldridge. The coroner, Constable McDonnell and several settlers visited the paddock where Bayne was killed and it was discovered that there were several stumps under which charges of gelignite had been left ready for firing. It was deemed advisable to explode them. A young man, Albert Eady, lighted a fuse, but there was no srv.oke and the charge failed to explode. P. McCann, jun., of Raketapauma, went over to the stump with the intention of lighting the fuse again, when an explosion occurred and McCann, who is a farmer about 30 years of age, was found on the ground in a semiconscious condition. The full extent of his injuries is not yet known, but if. is understood they are not serious. His lip was cut and his face was severely bruised. Eady was knocked down by the explosion, but was not injured. Giving evidence at the inquest, William Maurice Bayne, father of Mr. Bayne, stated that his son left home at 2 p.m. yesterday to blast some stumps in a paddock about a quarter of a mile from his house. Two hours later witness received information from his young grandson to the effect that Mr. Bayne had been killed by an explosion. SEVERAL CHARGES SET

Frederick T. Bankhart, farm labourer employed by Mr. Bayne, said he and deceased were engaged in clearing stumps from a paddock near the latter’s residence. His employer blasted the stumps and witness gathered up the wood and placed it in heaps. It was the custom to place charges of gelignite under several stumps and then fire them. Sometimes his employer placed two charges of explosives under one stump. Mr. Bayne would give a warning cry when he lighted a fuse and both he and witness would run for safety. At 3.30 p.m. yesterday Bayne gave

the usual warning and he and wit- | ness both ran a reasonable distance j away. On this particular occasion his j employer did not inform -witness he was firing two charges. After hearing one explosion they both walked back toward the stump, but witness was in a hollow about 30yds away from the stump when he heard another explosion. Bankhart said he could not see his employer, and then rushed across and discovered him lying on his back about seven yards from the stump, which had just been blown out of the ground. Mr. Bayne was gravely injured and died almost immediately. Mr. Bayne was a very careful and experienced man with explosives. In returning a verdict of accidental death the coroner remarked that even the most careful and experienced men with explosives came to grief. The present tragedy was the result of one of those accidents that will happen.