Trapped In Roller’s Cab

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30952, 7 January 1966, Page 3

Trapped In Roller’s Cab

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 6. Ambulance men, firemen, the Wellington Traffic Department, a bus driver and his passengers, and a group of workmen all played their part today in the rescue of a road-roller driver trapped in his overturned vehicle after it had gone over a bank at the Hutt road reclamation. Trapped by both legs in his cabin for about half an hour, the driver, John James, of Hopper street, Wellington, was freed after part of the cabin had been cut away with an acetylene torch. He is in a serious condition in Wellington Hospital. His left leg was partially severed above the ankle and his right leg was fractured below the knee. The roller which belongs to the Ministry of Works, was travelling along a steep grade when it stalled, ran back, rolled over the edge of a I bank and landed on its side, 20 feet below.

The bus driver and his passengers tried to free the roller driver but were unsuccessful. The Fire Brigade sent out an emergency tender and a I i P um PWorkmates of Mr James used their own acetylene equipment to rip away part |

of the cabin, while the firemen supervised its use. F . the whole operation. A wire hawser from a bulldozer on the top of the grade was attached to the roller, and the bulldozer, moving cautiously, helped to keep the weight off the injured man.