DRIVER TRAPPED BY LEGS IN TRUCK

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 1

DRIVER TRAPPED BY LEGS IN TRUCK

A driver lay trapped and injured in the cab of his truck for 45 minutes after a collision in Moorhouse Avenue yesterday. The driver, Michael Paul Joseph Nathan, aged 21, of 101 Simeon Street, was pinned by the feet with two fractures in his right leg. Firemen, traffic officers, tow-truck drivers, and police worked will saws and a w inch to cut away parts of the cab and free him. The front of the cah was crushed in a collision involving the truck and another truck hacking across Moorhouse Avenue into the wool store of DalgetyN’ew Zealand, Ltd. Mr Nathan’s feet were trapped in a tangle of metal, and his right leg was twisted. While tiremen cut the steering wheel, a tow truck pulled out the front of the cah to relieve the pressure on his legs. A nurse climbed into the cab behind Mr Nathan and gave him inhalations of a painkilling gas (shown in the photograph). Between inhalations, he talked to the large group of rescuers and occasionally grimaced. He was freed about 3.20 p.m.. and was lowered out of the cah by a fireman and ambulance officer. “Take it easy,” he said, just before being placed on a stretcher. Mr Nathan underwent surgery in Christchurch Hospital early last evening and was in a fairly comfortable condition afterwards.