MINE TRUCKER’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25638, 29 October 1948, Page 3

MINE TRUCKER’S DEATH

0 MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE DISMISSED ACCUSED’S WORKMATES CHEER DECISION (P.A.) GREYMOUTH, Oct. 28. Holding that the police had failed to substantiate the allegations. Justices of the Peace in the Magistrate’s Court at Greymouth to-day dismissed a manslaughter charge against a mine trucker. The verdict was greeted with cheers and handclaps by 200 miners who had struck to attend the hearing. Reginald George McGrane. aged 28. of Runanga, was charged with the manslaughter of Thomas Wright Alexander Blyth in the Liverpool State Mine on April 21. Senior-Sergeant Mcßobie, for the Crown, alleged that McGrane 'failed to ensure that the safety block was closed on the two-time jig in the mine. The result was that a fullyloaded truck went through the safetv blocks and careered down the jig incline, striking Blyth at the bottom, and causing fatal injuries. James Penrose, a trucker, said that he brought a full truck to the flatsheet above the jig incline. ‘‘l turned the truck on the flatsheet and it ran fairly fast. As it neared the safety block, it kicked back and continued on. Then I realised it was through the block and was a runaway ’’ Penrose added that he called out warnings, but on going to the bottom of the jig he found Blyth badly injured. He said he was convinced that the safety block was in position at the time of the accident, but if out of alignment, a jar would be sufficient to cause it to fly open. William Steele, a trucker, said he was assisting Blyth to push empty trucks at the bottom of the jig- While waiting for two trucks he had drawn up he heard someone call "Runaway.” He called to Blyth, "Get for your life,” and ran. After the truck had passed him, he returned and found Blyth lying beneath the truck, bleeding badly from a leg. Medical evidence was that Blyth’s leg was amputated, but he died five hours after admission. In a statement to the police. McGrane said that the safety block was on and he could give no reason why the truck should have gone through as it did.