ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2671, 18 January 1916, Page 3

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES

' \ '' AN INQUEST. Mr. D. (J. A. Cooper, Coroner, held an , inquest yesterday afternoon touching . the death of Henry Gray, contractor, who was killed" as the result of an accident at the new "Club Hotel building on Saturday morning. Sergeant O'Halloran represented the police, while Mr. 11. A. Bolland, Inspector of Scaffolding, represented the Labour Department. The evidence showed that a "pinch" bar (a steel bar about 10 inches long and weighing over 21b.) fell from the top of the building, striking deceased on the head and_ fracturing his skull., The bar had previously been laid in an apparently safe place on top of the building, and no one oould sav definitely how it came to be didodgecl. It was surmised that it had been shaken off by a passing workman. Dr. T. Cahill, who attended deceased, stated that death'was due to injuries to the brain; haemorrhage, and sliock. A verdict was returned accordingly, the Coroner remarking that no blame was attachable to anyone, j AN ACCIDENTAL FALL. .. By: Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunodin, January 17. At an inquest - to-day concerning the death of John Lawrie, who died from injuries sustained by a fall in the Dry Dock lat Port Chalmers, the Coroner 'Mr. J. R. Bartholomew) held that death was due to an accidental fall, but declined to give any finding on the matter of negligence, as it was not germane to the inquiry. The evidence," he said, was contradictory;arid. ; unsatisfactory:; 1 .MOTORING ACCIDENT. ' Nelson, January 17. : ' While endeavouring to avoid injuring 3. child, who ran across the road at Richmond crossing this. afternoon, a motor-car driver had his attention diverted from an approaching train, and the car struck the engine. Of five occupants' of the car, one, a girl aged 12, named Rhodes, residing at Motueka, was father seriously injured, the flesh being stripped from her leg by tie wheels of the engine. She had a miraculous escape from death. None of the others wore seriously injured.

A MAORI DROWNED. ' '■ Rotorua, January 17., Wi Whaitiri, a prominent Maori of Taheke, was drowned" in the Katuna River, below the Okere Falls, while shag shooting,, on Sunday afternoon. He ■ swam to retrieve a bird, and was swept away by the current. The body has not been recovered. '