LORRY FALLS 90 FEET DRIVER JUMPS CLEAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 908, 27 February 1930, Page 18

LORRY FALLS 90 FEET

DRIVER JUMPS CLEAR

ACCIDENT ON CUTTING Press Association WELLINGTON, Wednesday. To drop over a steep, bank 90ft. in height while driving a heavy motorlorry laden with earth, and yet escape uninjured, was the experience today of Mr. Morgan, contractor for the removal of spoil from a cutting. The work is being done with the aid of a fleet of motor-lorries, each of which carries about two tons of earth each trip. The dump is into a .gully. Each lorry as it arrives on the scene backs slowly to the edge of the filling and tips its load backward. The filling is on a very steep grade, and the level of the street is about 90ft. above the bottom of the gully. Mr. Morgan arrived with a full load and was backing to the edge when, it is stated, something blocked the accelerator feed for a moment, then suddenly the blockage was released and the lorry shot back over the edge. It toppled on its side and slid downward. About 30ft. from the bottom the vehicle turned a somersault and then landed upright at the foot of the slope. Fortunately the filling was composed for the greater part of soft, loose earth, which must have checked the velocity of the sliding vehicle. Before it turned the somersault Mr. Morgan was able to jump clear.