TWO SUFFOCATED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 3

TWO SUFFOCATED

BURIED BY SAND

FATALITY AT KARAPIRO

O.C. HAMILTON, this day. A double fatality occurred at the Karapiro hydro-electric works early this morning, when two men were suffocated in a large sand bin. The victims were:— Mr. John James Gough, aged 50, married. Mr. Thomas Happerley, aged 50, married. The bin when full holds 100 yards of sand, which is fed through a washer ,to the bin and drawn off through a chute at the bottom of the bin. The shift on which Mr. Gough was working started at midnight and when he was missing early this morning inquiries were made. As the sand was later being drawn off through the chute a leg was seen through the aperture. It is assumed that Mr. Gough .walked on to the top of the sand and, as the material was being drawn off, became trapped. Mr. Happerley, realising that Mr. Gough was buried under the sand, entered the trough in an endeavour to rescue him. He, toe, became trapped and was suffocated before he could be extricated. Both bodies have been recovered.