TWO KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 11

TWO KILLED.

BURIED BY ROCK. ROAD WORK TRAGEDY. PREMATURE EXPLOSION. PUBUC WORKS EMPLOYEES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Buried under a slip in the Ngahauranga Gorge, where work is proceeding in reconstruction of the main highway, the bodies of two men employed by the Public Work Department have been removed to the morgue. One other man is in hospital. The accident was the result of a premature explosion. Four men were working on a steep face on the job. A hole had been driven, and a charge of explosive inserted. This was toeing tamped when it unaccountably went off, detonating the charge, consisting of one plug of gelignite, the detonator of which had not been inserted. Two men, one of whom received the fullest effect of the blast and was killed instantly, were completely buried by rock shaken down from the face by the premature blast. The two killed are: Cornelius Harold Ward, married, Nving at Tunnel Camp, Khandallah; and Stephen Timlin, a single man, resident at 17, Hutt Road, Khandallah. Only one man is in hospital. He isl Cyril Berry, single, resident at 7, Queen's Koad, Lower Hutt. His condition is not serious. The fourth man, Holmes, was. not taken away by .ambulance. He was standing near holding a detonator at the time, and was blown some yards away. He was bruised but not incapacitated. He walked away and afterwards was able to make a statement at the preliminary inquiry. The men were working on a steep face on the Johnsonville side of the big cutting to be put through above the abattoirs. Berry, who Is a quarryman, was partially buried with rock, but Holmes escaped unhurt.