DEATH FROM SCALDS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1929, Page 10

DEATH FROM SCALDS

STEAM PIPE BURSTS

A RARE ACCIDENT

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post")

AUCKLAND, This Day,

The verdict of accidental death by scalding was returned by the Coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at an inquest into the death .of Cyril Pereival George Hobbs, a young man employed as a fireman by the Public Works Department ou the Westfield railway deviation, whose death occurred in tho Auckland Hospital on 15th September. Hobbs received severe scalds when ho was working an engine on the deviation, his face, nock, back, and arms being onveloped in a cloud of steam when a steam-pipe in the cab of an engine burst and the deceased was pinned in. The driver of the engine, Arthur William Everest, stated that Hobbs acted as his fireman at the time of the accident. Ho was driving a train consisting of five tip trucks, the truck next to the engiuo being loaded' with timber. The engine was proceeding in reverse, pushing the trucks.. Approaching Panmure station the train was stopped near the bridge to pick up a number of trucks and witness alighted to couple up, leaving the deceased in charge of the engine, "Suddenly I heard a rush of steam and saw steam coming from the engine," continued witness. "A man called Kenslcy shouted to me at the same time, and I ran back to the engine. I then saw that a cement mixing board on the truck next to the engine had caught on the screen, beside the line and had been forced through the woodwork of the cab, piuning the deceased against the reversing gear, while it had broken the pipe on the boiler, allowing the steam direct from the boiler to escape." Deceased w:is seriously scalded. Trevor Edward Lambert, who said ho had loaded the truck, admitted he knew the screen was on the line, but had thought it wouM be clear of tho board. The Iniiu was going at only about two miles an hour at tho time nnd the extreme edgo of the board caught au upviglit on tho screen. That w;\s the first train he had loaded to pass the screen, ! which he had not passed previously. An overseer on the line stated that it was common for drivers to couple up and leave the firemen in charge of the engines. The accident was tho first one of its kind he had soon in 40 years' work on the railways.