MINER'S NECK BROKEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 18

MINER'S NECK BROKEN

FATALITY CAUSED BY WINCH EVIDENCE AT INQUEST Special to THE SUN DARGAVILLE, Friday. r The death of Mr. Albert Nightingale, mtner, 29, at the Avoca coal mine yesterday, formed the subject of an Inquest held by Mr. J. A. McLean, Coroner, today. George Francis Reynell, one of the partners of the co-operative party working the mine, said that deceased’s duties at the time were to operate the engine and friction-hauling winch on a hill-top 111 chains from the mouth of the shaft. This gear was employed to haul trucks laden with coal to the top of the hill. Nightingale was alone, other workmen, including witness, being at the mineshaft. Delay in the return to the shaftmouth from the hill-top of a rake of empty trucks gave the first indication to the men belcw that something was amiss. Thereupon, Joseph Lister went up to the engine-shed to investigate the cause and informed witness of the accident. A wire rope attached to the trucks and wound about the winch-drum was found to have become entangled around the spindle upon which the drum revolved. Witness considered that too much slack rope must have been allowed as ♦he trucks were pushed off Dy Nightingale at the top of the hill. The loop thus caused on the drum had fallen over on to the spindle about which it had been wound until the rope had become suddently taut under the weight of the trucks as they ran downhill. As this happened the fric-tion-brake lever operated by deceased had jerked upward rapidly, striking Nightingale on the neck beneath the right ear. Dr. C. H. Crump, who had been called by telephone immediately after the accident, said that the cause of death was a broken neck. Death would have been instantaneous. The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death.

Deceased’s father-in-law, Mr. ,T. Leighton, is one of the partners in the mine enterprise.