"BLUNDERED."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 11

"BLUNDERED."

PLATFORM COLLAPSE. FATALITY AT WESTFIELD. COMMENTS BY THE CORONER. '"The work on which deceased was engaged was not properly supervised. Someone blundered, - ' said the coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in conducting an inquiry this morning into the death of Herbert Green, a labourer, aged oj, employed liy Kempt home, Piosser, Limited, at Westtield, which was caused through the collapse of a wooden platform which he was helping to demolish at the premises of his employers. The accident happened on January 25. He and a carpenter were demolishing a platform by the use of a winch, when the platform collapsed, throwing deceased on to a concrete floor. Ueorge Stumbles Love (Mr. Turner), employed by the same firm as a carpenter, said the winch rope had been attached to one of the posts supporting the platform, with the idea of lifting it from its foundations on the floor Deceased was working on the part of the platform which still remained in ite original position. The winch had been a fixture on the platform. The fact that the platform had been built of heavy timber and that the winch had been permanently bolted to the floor made it appear to him that the joists woukl be naturally anchored to the concrete wall, but they were not. Another employee, Arthur Lukin Phillips, said that when he heard the sound of creaking timbers above him, where he was working on the floor, he looked up to see the poets supporting the platform swing out. The platform itself had pulled out from the wall. Constable Nicol said he found that the deceased wae suffering from a compound fracture of the skull. "Did it not strike you when the posts were pulled out that the platform might fall V" Mr. Hunt asked the witness Love. Witness: It did afterwards. He told Mr. Fleming, who appeared for deceased's widow, that he had taken his instructions from the chief engineer. The mode of demolition had, however, been left to his discretion. '•Who put the pulleys up?" asked Mr. Hunt. Witness: I do not know. The winch had been there for years. The engineer at Kempthorne, Prosser's, Edward Oliver Pople, said he was not aware that he should have notified the -scaffolding inspector of the Labour Department that he was about to undertake the work.

The pulleys, he explained, were put in position at the start of the demolition by the rigger, but witness was not sure that he had discussed the matter of their position with him. He did not inspect the platform before giving instructions as to its demolition.

He saw the work about an hour before the accident. At that time there were no ropes round the supports. He did not think it necessary then to give any more instructions.

Returning an open verdict, Mr. Hunt added that a mistake had been made in removing; the supports to the platform without adequate measures being taken for the safety of the men employed. It was like a man sitting on a branch and sawing off the wrong end, he said.