WHARF TRAGEDY AVERTED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28159, 24 December 1956, Page 14

WHARF TRAGEDY AVERTED

Crowd Scattered By Runaway Trucks CHILD SNATCHED FROM UNDER WHEELS

(New Zealand. Press Association) INVERCARGILL. December 23. A child was snatched from certain death before a horrified crowd on the i Bluff wharf on Friday evening, and I another man helped to stop what ’ would have been a tragedy involving i several children.

The New Zealand Antarctic expedition’s ship H.M.N.Z.S. Endeavour, had been berthed for about an hour when the accident occurred. Some of the crowd had dispersed, but children were everywhere.

. Some were on a rake of trucks directly in front of the Endeavour when, without warning, an engine shunted into the trucks. The crash of steel mingled with the screams of children and the crowd.

Two trucks cn the end were not attached to the others of the rake. These went rattling along the packed wharf. *

The twelve or so children in and on them were tossed about like ninepins. One child was thrown on the line under a truck. The wheels were only inches from him when he was snatched clear by a bystander.

At the same time another man raced forward and jammed on a brake, stopping the two trucks. The children, apart from the shock, were uninjured. The two rescuers disappeared into the crowd.