Man Trapped After Falling Down Cliff

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 1

Man Trapped After Falling Down Cliff

Ambulance men and a doctor took nearly an hour to extricate a seriously injured man who fell down a 30ft cliff and became jammed between the foot of the cliff and a shed yesterday afternoon.

Mr J. A. Mclvor, aged 62, of 379 Port Hills road, was taken to Christchurch Hospital with a broken leg, broken arm and injuries to his jaw, head and ribs. His condition last evening was reported to be fairly satisfactory. Mr Mclvor had the antenna of his television set erected on top of the cliff behind his house last Saturday to improve reception. About 4 p.m. yesterday, he went up the hill and along the cliff top to adjust the antenna. The hillside gave way and he fell down the almost sheer cliff face. His wife saw him fall. A neighbour, Mrs F. L. Bull, heard the thud, and went outside thinking it was another fall of rock, loosened by rain. “I could not see anyone. Then I heard Mrs Mclvor screaming. Mr Mclvor was lying behind the shed at the back of the property adjoining his. He was obviously

very badly injured and I telephoned the ambulance immediately. “Mr Mclvor was conscious. He was jammed between the back of the shed and the foot of the rocky cliff. The ambulance men could not move him —they did not know the full extent of his injuries. “An ambulance man telephoned for a doctor. Dr. T. M. O’Brien came, and gave Mr Mclvor an injection. Mr Mclvor was in great pain and his mind wandering. It was almost an hour after he fell before the doctor and ambulance men lifted him clear. It took them a long time to get him out. It was very difficult,” Mrs Bull said.