SERIOUS ACCIDENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9653, 18 November 1909, Page 5

SERIOUS ACCIDENT.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH. MAN FALLS FORTY-FIVE FEET. By Telegraph—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, November 17. A man, named Percy Waddell. had a miraculous escape from death at the tunnel woiks early this morning. Waddell was trucking from the tunnel mouth to the tiphead, and had tilten a rake of seven trucks down and was in the act of tipping them fmm a trestle which has been constructed to facilitate this work, when by some means the whole rake commenced to move forward, apparently through being insufficiently braked. All the trucks are fi ted with a powerful screw brake, an! there should be no difficulty in holding them, but as Waddell was anew hnnd at the work it is surmised that when he fo'ind the trucks moving towards destruction he lost his head and unscrewed thp brake instead of screwing it on. The result was that the whol? rite w?nt over thp trestle and was smashed to pieces. Waddell attempted to alight on the end of the sleeperp, but missed hisfontinp, and f< U a distance of 45 f«et to the river bed below, where hr was picked up in an unconscious condition some time after. He has now regained consciousness, hot is suffering from internal injuries besides a broken leg and several cuts and bad bruises.