Terrible Accident.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3528, 16 April 1880, Page 2

Terrible Accident.

One of the most dreadful fatal accidents it has been our painful lot to chronicle for some time, occurred this morning, a well-known citizen, Mr James Syveret, being the victim. The unfortunate man was working with his mate, Matthew Cummingtt, in the Big Pump jard. They desired to saw a strip from a huge squared log of. timber, weighing fully three tons, and to accomplish this two six-by-two plankings were nailed crosswise against the legs of the Big Pump mullock tramway one of the supports only being secured with one three-inch Ewbank nail. As an additional support they nailed two uprights under the cross pieces. The junk of timber was then placed on this fragile saw frame, and the sawing proceeded with. It became necessary to shift the log, and Syveret worked it along with a timber jack, he being underneath. The weight of the timber moving over the cross pieces tore out the nails of one of them, and the large mass fell oil the unfortunate man's skull, smashing it as flat as a pancake against a jpiece of six by six timber underneath. Death must have been instantaneous. Cummings, though horror stricken at the fearful, spectacle of his un fortunate mate's brains scattered over the timber, seized the jack and extricated the body. Some men in the yard conveyed the body to" the All Nations Hotel and information speedily conveyed to the police. On inspecting the scene of the accident, it was found that the nails in the upright which gave way did not penetrate the leg of the tramway, and the place in which the single nail holding the cross-piece was driven was not very sound, the nail being drawn. The cross-piece lay*bn the ground broken in two. The plank against which the head was crushed was spattered with brains and gore. Syveret was aged about 50, a native of the Channel Islands, and greatly esteemed by those who knew him as a sober and industrious man. He leaves a wife and family of fix children to mourn his untimely end. The deceased was a Freemason, and an active member of the Protestant Alliance Friendly Society.