Buried To Chest In Stone Hopper

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 16

Buried To Chest In Stone Hopper

Wew Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 15.

A quarry manager, Eric Foley, was back at work tonight —with not even a bruise to show for an accident which could have cost him his life.

Mr Foley, aged 63, of Eastbourne, was buried to the top of his chest under a load of stone while inspecting a 15ft deep hopper at Dry creek quarry, Western Hutt road, this morning.

A workmate was trapped by his feet. Mr Foley went into the hop-

per with two quarrymen to supervise the repair of a damaged panel. “While we were inside a load of stone was accidentally bulldozed into the hopper,” Mr Foley said. He and the plant operator, Frank Jenkins, of Stokes Valley, were trapped. The third man, Ken Bovey, of Miramar, jumped clear and gave the alarm. “If he had not got dear in time, more stone would have

been dumped on us and that would have been it” Mr Foley said tonight. “I was caught up to the chest and Frank by his feet, but we couldn’t do anything about it. “We had to wait threequarters of an hour till we were dug out. “We couldn’t move, and I began to feel stiff in the legs. “In the end I couldn’t feel them at all. I didn’t feel crushed and it wasn’t too bad except for the dead feeling in my legs.” Quarry workers dug franticai.y while an ambulance was being called. They had to push the ambulance through deep mud to get to the hopper. After he was freed Mr Foley could not walk at first, but he soon recovered. He was taken to the Hutt Hospital, but was later allowed to return to work.