CRUSHED BY WIRELESS MAST.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20415, 9 December 1931, Page 5

CRUSHED BY WIRELESS MAST.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE'S DEATH. * The inquest concerning the death of John Annan, an employee of the Health Department, aged 62, living at Lyttelton, who was killed while dismantling .• a. wireless mast at Quail Island on No-, vember 27th, was concluded before the Coroner, Mr E. D. Mosley, yesterday. Dr. B. Wyn-Irwin, house surgeon at the Public Hospital, said that he attended Annan when he was admitted to hospital on November 27th. He was suffering from a fractured skull and other injuries. He considered death had been ■caused by laceration of the brain and shook. \ Mark Kershaw, an Inspector of Health, of Linwood, said that Annan j was working with him and another man at Quail Island, dismantling an iron wireless mast,, about 60ft high, on the afternoon of the accident. While the lowering was in progress a hitch oc* curred and Annan had to leave his post by one of . the £uy ropes, to direct ness' how to operate the/lowering wtoe* he. had called .out "Look out! ; ■and witness 1 had turned in time to see him running for safety and then to see the mast collapse sideyrays, and strike him on the head, inflicting a severe wound. Witness sent for help at once and two doctors and ambulance men came over from Lyttelton. considered that if Annan had stood still or had run in the opposite direction he would have been perfectly safe, Apparent he had misjudged the direction in which the mast was falling and had run right into its path. Witness had been instructed by the Health Department to dismantle the mast, which had been used in connexion with the old leper station on Quail Island. Thomas Edward Schou, another Health Inspector, of Spreydon, who had-also been with Kershaw and Annan at Quail Island, corroborated Kershaw's evidence. , . "As to whether adequate precautions were taken in lowering this mast,'' said the Coroner, "there-is no evidence before the Court. It may be that these men were competent .to do the work; on the other hand, it may be that the Department was ill-advised in entrusting such work to men who were not practised at it." A- formal verdict of accidental death was returned.