ENDURANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 5

ENDURANCE.

DRIVER'S AGONY.

PINNED BY TRUCK.

RESCUED AFTER HOURS.

LTTCJKY TO BE ALIVE.

(By Telegraph.—Special to " Star.")

NEW PLYMOUTH, this day.

After skidding on a corner on a muddy i road between Tahora and Tangarakau] about 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, a truck driven by Desmond Hight, of Tangarakau, capsized off the road and fell on a fence. Hight was forced across the fence, and pinned there, and he endured untold pain for 9J hours till" he was found at seven o'clock yesterday morning. Only a few chains away were a house and a hut full of workmen, b.ut Hight's cries for help weTe not heard, and no traffic passed in the interim. Besides having to bear some of the weight of the truck, be had to breathe the fumes of petrol leaking from the tank, and -with the truck above, and the fence wires below cutting into his body, throat and face, his experience was enough to have turned a weaker man's reason. He was taken to Stratford by train, and Admitted to the Stratford Public Hospital, where an examination showed him to be suffering from collapse, due to exposure (heavy rain fell during the night) and pressure of the fence wires. There were no broken bones, but abrasions and cuts were numerous. Unable to Move. Mr. Hight is a single man, aged 22, a son of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Hight, of Kohuratahi. He has been engaged in

carrying work between Tangarakau, where he lives, and Tahora. He was seen passing through Tahora at 9.15 on Wednesday, on his way to Tangarakau, and as it-would take him about 15 minutes i to reach the spot where the accident ] occurred, he must have been pinned I between the truck and the fence from i 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday till nearly 7 a.m. When he was found he was lying across the fence, with the overturned truck on top of him. "Wished it Would Choke Him." Mr. Hight said he managed to call out at intervals, but could not make himself heard. As time wore on the chances of help seamed more and more remote, andi he almost gave up hope of surviving. He said after he was found that at times he | wished the fence wire that was forced against his throat would choke him, and end the intolerable pain. He was found just before 7 a.m. by a schoolboy, Colin Dodunski, who was taking cream to Tahora station. Unable to do anything himself, the boy hurried to a workman's hut, where there were a number of men, including Mr. Hight's brother, William Hight. The men lifted the truck bodily, and tipped it into the gully. At first they thought the injured man was dead, and were surprised when he called out, "For God's sake take the lorry off me." Prompt Action by Nurse. In the meantime, a telephone message brought Nurse B. Birss from Tangarakau to Tahora on a railway "jigger." Mr. Hight was taken to Tahora, and • there Nurse Birss did all she could for him, and placed him on- a stretcher. When the train from Taumarunui pulled into Tahora, the stretcher was suspended from the roof of the guard's van, &nd at Nurse Birss' request —the time factor being one that migh*- mean the difference between life and death—the train was run straight throught to Stratford, the usual shunting stops being omitted, and the train stopping only for passengers. It arrived at Stratford pt noon. Steady rain fell during the night, and Mr. Hight had that to bear in addition to the other pains. When he wr.s discovered rain was peuing down, a..d Nurse Birss was wet to the skin by the time she reached Tahora. To the fact that she ignored this and made so efficiently all the arrangements necessary to get Mr. Hight to Stratford as quickly as possible, the injured man owes much.