Ten Injured When Truck Drops 14ft.

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 981, 26 May 1930, Page 12

Ten Injured When Truck Drops 14ft.

TRAPPED IN SHELTER TWO MEN SERIOUSLY HURT BLENHEIM, Sunday.. Ten men were injured, two seriously, when a railway truck on which they were riding left the rails at a bridge and fell 14 feet to a creek-bed. The men were trapped inside a fiimsy corrugated iron shelter built on the truck specially for the journey, which crumpled under the impact. ■ The injured, men are: j Robert J. Wallace, aged about 45, | married, with four or live children, . i crushed chest and fractured skull: j condition very serious. Wallace was ! employed on Murray’s Woodside station until about two months ago, ; when lie secured work with the Public Works Department. Thomas King, aged about 65, bei lieved to lie single, with relatives in Shannon, lacerated back and strain; condition serious. J. Mills, married, no children, torn i sinews in left leg and other injuries. Mason, single, ruptured muscles of the back and lacerated wound in the i left hand. Roy Gifford, married, broken jaw - and nose, and other lesser injuries. A. Duncan, severe crushing of left foot. i A. Petersen, broken nose, and wound in the head. R. Neilson. scalp wound and 1 j strained back. C. Ross, minor injuries, j Maurice Hickey, injuries to the face. The ten men were part of a, gang which had been engaged in platelaying between Tirohanga and Tainui. | When the knock-off whistle blew a*t midday on Saturday they entered a railway truck on Vliich a hut had been erected and which was always used | for conveying the men from their I camps to the scene of their labours, i A small engine was hitched on and set off in the direction of Wharanui, ! where -the men’s camps were located. TRUCK LEAVES RAILS All went well until Tirohanga was ! reached, but here the truck left the rails just as the bridge was reached. It turned completed upside down, and wi-tli ten men trapped inside it crashed into the creek bed lift or so below. The hut . on the truck was flimsilybuilt of corrugated iron, and collapsed when it struck the ground. The enginedriver and fireman, who at once pulled up when the truck parted company with the engine, hurried back to the scene. They •thought all were dead, as there was no sound from the wreckage, and it seemed impossible that anyone could live under the weight of the inverted truck. Moans and cries followed, however. With the assistance of another gang which was returning to Wharanui by | road, the victims were extricated ; from the wreckage with considerable ! difficulty. OOCTOR FLIES TO ACCIDENT In the meantime a messenger was sent to the Tirohanga homestead, and Mrs. A. Rittson Thomas, after telephoning to Blenheim for a doctor, went with Miss Aid worth, of Wellington, to the scene of the accident. Dr. J. F. Bennett arranged for the , services of one of the Marlborough Aero Club’s Moth machines, and by this means was on the scene of the . j accident and attending to the injured ! within an hour of the occurrence, and ; less than half an hour after leaving Blenheim. ! The least injured were despatched to Wharanui b3' motor-truck, and the ; others remained on the scene until ■ the arrival of Dr. Bennett. Captain j Noel Chandler, who flew the airplane, j landed on excellent ground at Tiroi hanga. The site lias recently been i adopted as one of the Aero Club’s j stations for short cross-country flights, j Here a car was waiting to convey the I doctor to the scene of the accident, i about a mile distant. I Messrs. Wallace and King were con- ! ve’yed to the Marlborough Hospital In !an ambulance. The others are still ! at Wharanui, but will probably I sent to Blenheim tomorrow. NOT PUBLIC LINE USED BY PUBLIC WORKS PAST MAIN TRUNK TERMINAL Press Association | WELLINGTON, Today. | The Publicity Department of the ! New Zealand Railways states that the accident at Tirohanga on Saturday 1 last,' when ten Public Works’ em- ; ployees were injured, did not occur on a Government railway line open for 1 traffic, but on a temporary line laid down by the Public Works Depart- ! ment to facilitate the transport of i material and ballast. ; The South Island Main Trunk line, i running southward from Picton and. | Blenheim, now terminates at Wharanui, and the accident to the Public Works’ employees occurred at a point Nome miles south of that terminal. In the ordinary course of events, any railway line constructed by the Public Works Department has to be j thoroughly inspected and tested before i the line is handed over to the Railway t Department to be used for public ; travel.