CARPENTER’S DEATH FOLLOWS FALL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 258, 28 July 1936, Page 11

CARPENTER’S DEATH FOLLOWS FALL

Collapse of Scaffold

NOT OFFICIALLY PASSED BY INSPECTOR An inquiry into the’ death of a carpenter, William Percival Wansbrough, was held yesterday before Mr. E. Gilberbson, J.P. The coroner found that Wansbrough died at Wellington Hospital on July 19 as a result of injuries received when he fell 20 feet from a scaffolding to the ground some eight days previously. The scaffolding was stated not to have been officially passed by an inspector. Gilbert King, of 55 Standen Road, Karori. deposed that Wansbrough had been g(lasslng-in a veranda at tihe front of his residence. Afterward he started to paint the front of the house. While erecting some of the scaffolding it collapsed, and he fell to the ground, a distance of 20 feet.

The son of the previous witness, Arnold Thane King, aged 13, stated that on July 11 he was watching Wansbrough erecting the scaffold. “I heard him hammering. Suddenly I saw the scaffolding collapse, and he fell to the ground. He fell on to the front lawn. I asked him if he was hurt, and he replied ‘Go and get the ambulance!’ I rang up for the ambulance, which came and took him away to hospital,” deposed the boy. An inspector of scaffolding said that Wansbrough had omitted to notify the department of the erection of the scaffold, as was required of anybody proposing to do work involving t'he risk of a fall of more than 12 feet. Had he given notice the scaffold would have been inspected, and would not have been passed. The accident was caused by the nails pulling out from the wall.