TRUCK FATALITY

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 4, 6 February 1952, Page 2

TRUCK FATALITY

ON HYDRO ACCESS ROAD — Saturday, February, 2. About 7 p.m. on Thursday of last week a truck loaded with a bulldozer and driven by Mr Claude Henry Lang went over the bank on the access road to the Hatepe Hydro site, & plunged several hundred feet into the gorge. The unfortunate man was killed, being found with his head jammed between the steering column and dashboard. Shortly before seven Mrs Ned Mihinui, cook at the Hydro camp, saw a truck on the hill road and remarked that there would be another man for tea. A moment later Mr Mihinui called to Mr F. J. Sheppard, civil engineer at the power scheme, that the truck had gone over the bank. Mr Bheppard at once drove in his car up the hill, accompanied by Mr R. H. Oliver, foreman for Tapper Construotion Co. Ltd., and several employees. They scrambled down to the truck, from which the bulldozer had broken loose in the descent. They were unable to open the cab, the doors being jammed, and Mr Sheppard returned to the camp and brougbt a ladder and tdols to Mr Oliver, and then drove to Waitahanui and advised the Police Station. When Mr Sheppard returned to the scene Mr Oliver and party had extricated the truck driver who was found to be dead. Mr Oliver brought the body up to the road under most difficult circumstances. Meantime the Ambulance of the local St. John Ambulance Association, manned by Messrs A. Kennedy, L. Edlin and L. E. Reid, had gone out on receiving word of the accident from Constable Rowlands and before it was known that the accident had terminated fatally. Wheelmarks on the hill road -showed that after rounding the left hand bend near the top of the hill the truck had driven about thirty yards down the grade on the righthand side of the road with its outer wheels close to the outer edge of the formation. The road edge had then collapsed precipitating the truck into the gorge. An inquest was opened before Mr J. D. Swan, Coroner, and adjourned after evidence of identification had been taken. Deceased was a single man, aged 41, employed by Mr J. D. Wrallace, of Cambridge.