DRAY OVERTURNED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 212, 8 September 1938, Page 22

DRAY OVERTURNED.

TEAMSTER DROWNED. ENGULFED BY HUGE WAVE. SURVIVOR TELLS STORY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. How a teamster and his dray and horses were engulfed by an unusually large wave at the "Run Around," near Ohiro Bay, was described to-day at the inquest before the coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson, J.P., into the death of Harry Perrett, aged 68, of Island Bay, who was drowned on August 28. SeniorSergeant D. J. O'Neill conducted the inquest and Mr. C. J. O'Regan appeared for relatives of deceased.

Lionel Kitchener James, labourer, explained that to get to the place where they were loading gravel it was necessary to pass under a bluff for 150 yards, the teams travelling most of the time in the surf. He had just helped the deceased to load a dray, which deceased was making the last, as the tide was making and the sea coming up fairly rough. They had gone only about 50 yards when he heard the deceased say, "Look out for this one," meaning a high wave. Upon Beach. The next moment the wave broke on the dray, and, rebounding from the cliff, turned it over, throwing deceased and witness into the water. Witness was taken out into the breakers and did not see deceased after that. The next thing he remembered was that he was up on the beach and the sea dragging him back. He dug his hands and knees into the sand and managed to get out of the water half dazed. It was then he thought of the deceased and struggled back under the cliff to see if he oould find him, but could not see him anywhere. The horses were still attached to the dray and struggling to get free. They were struggling for about 20 minutes before they were drowned. Could Do Nothing. Witness said he saw he could do nothing, and, being wet through, commenced to climb the cliff. He got stuck about 50 yards up and two men later came to his assistance. When he and deceased commenced to leave the place where they were loading gravel, waves were reaching the cliff. They would have got round in safety had not this heavy and unusual wave caught them. Such waves under the conditions prevailing that afternoon were very infrequent. Jim Perrett, brother of deceased, said he had seen pedestrians caught at that place, but this was the first time he had heard of a dray being in trouble. A verdict was returned that deceased' was accidentlly drowned. "When conditions are like that I think pedestrians who endeavour to cross there take their lives in their hands," observed the coroner.