Just Escaped Falling Timber

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 3

Just Escaped Falling Timber

(N.Z. Press Association) . INVERCARGILL. August 11. [ A woman narrowly [ escaped serious injury j this afternoon when a I bundle of timber fell I from the crane work- I ing at the new sevenstorey Government I office block and crashed through windows two j feet from where she ■ was sitting in the Post ' Office exchange build- | ing. Miss O. E. Eades, a super- j visor in the toll room, was[ sitting in the social building: reading a paper about 4.45 p.m., when the load came' I lose.

“1 heard a thunderous roar on the roof and 1 put the paper over my head and ran as fast as I could away from the windows.” she said. Seconds later the timber, some of which had landed on the roof, crashed through about seven windows, leaving

■ splintered wood and broken) glass on the floor. ' The rest landed two : storeys below, some of it on | a Post Office foreman’s van. [The vehicle was slightly : damaged. [ A passer-by saw the timber: [spinning around in a strong: ‘wind. Then the steel holding: ;the timber to the hook broke! ■and the timber crashed. [ A Post Office employee said; [that it was not the first time; [windows had been broken by j building materials falling, or! ibeing blown from the office! ,block. “Some of the testing staff : on the bottom floor are rather [ worried,” he said. “They [[work at desks facing the win:ldows and aren’t too happy at '[the prospect of something ' coming through.” ■ I ! Badly Hurt I A young man suffered exI I tensive injuries when the | motor-cycle he was riding was • involved in a collision with a 1 motor-car near the Waihao i bridge on the Main South ; highway this afternoon.

He is David McNicholl, of Karori, Wellington. He is : believed to be a medical student at Otago University. Mr McNicholl was riding south and had stopped to recover an exhaust pipe. He was admitted to the [ [Waimate Hospital with extensive injuries. His condition; [tonight was reported to be[ satisfactory. [Man Dies [ A young man under an i anaesthetic died in an Inver[cargill dental surgery today. IHe was John Clarence Garron, aged 19, of Mataura. He worked as a cook on the hostel ship Wanganella, at Deep (Jove. It is understood he died about 11.30 a.m. An anaesthetist was in atten- | dance. [ An inquest will be held. Foot Crushed A tunneller had his right . foot crushed between a seven- ■ ton locomotive and a muck i car in the tail-race tunnel at Deep Cove last night.

He is Mario Dibbotista, aged i 29, single, employed by Utah ! Williamson-Burnett. Mr Dibottista was flown to : Invercargill today and i admitted to Kew Hospital. His condition tonight was fair. ' Mercy Flight '; An Auckland construction, worker employed on harbour j ! development in Samoa is | being flown home by an ! R.N.Z.A.F. Sunderland flyingboat with a suspected fractured spine. The injured man, Mr' Warren Francis MowJ bray, aged 30, is a ' pile-driving foreman employ-j 5 ed by the Fletcher Construe-1 ’ tion Company, Ltd., for a harbour development con-i 1 tract. i The aircraft had been sent i- to Aitutaki to pick up an. injured Cook Islander, but he died while being taken to it. The Sunderland left Lauthala Bay at 1 a.m. today, it and arrived at the island at i- 7 a.m. k The aircraft is scheduled it to arrive at Hobsonville, Auckland, at 8.30 a.m.