CRUSHED TO DEATH

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 171, 21 July 1910, Page 4

CRUSHED TO DEATH

MAN RUN OVER BY STEAM ROLLER.

MELBOURNE, July 15.

A dreadful fate overtook John Tanner this afternoon at ■ Alphington. Tanner, who was 70 years of age, was employed by the City Council as a signalman to walk in front of the corporation steam roller when it was being used on roads. To-day the roller, weighing about 15 tons, was being used on the "Heidel-berg-road, Alphington. Tanner was walking in front with a flag in his hand. Having so constantly the clank of the ponderous machine behind him, he had apparently become forgetful of the everpresent danger he was in, for, when a spirited horse began to plunge wh„j2 passing, Tanner, who was only a yard of two in advance of the roller, stopped to look at the fidgety animal.

In an instant the huge engine had knocked the old man down, and the front rollers passed over him. Tanner's life was crushed out of him so quickly that he had not time to cry out but the man driving the horse had witnessed the awful occurrence, and -his frantic shout caused the driver of the roller to pull up the machine. Tanner's body had been crushed from the feet to the neck, and every bone in it had been broken except the..skull. The roller had stopped short -at the head. The enormous weight Was -backed off the corpse.