CRUSHED IN A HOPPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 79, 3 April 1928, Page 7

CRUSHED IN A HOPPER.

TRAGEDY AT AONGATETE. MAN'S BODY AMONG STONE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) TAURANGA, Monday. The sight of a man's body coming through the hopper door o'f a crushing plant at Aongatete startled the workmen on Friday. The machinery was stopped at once, but by the time the body was extricated life was extinct. The inquest into the death of the man, WilUam James Mavberry, was completed at Aongatete before Mr. A. F. Tunks, coroner. » R. J. Harris, foreman of the works, stated that he was away when the accident happened, and so Mayberry was in charge. While the trucks were away for stone he might have gone into the hopper at the top of the crusher plant to ease down any material sticking to the sides of it. The hopper was 15ft deep, so a man might easily be in it unseen. J. H. Griffith, who was feeding stone from the hopper door into the crusher, described the discovery of Mayberry's body, and H. Blay stated that several loads of stone had gone into the hopper before the accident was discovered. The coroner returned a verdict of death from cerebral haemorrhage, consequent upon a fracture of the skull while working on the crushing plant of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Company, Ltd.