WORKMAN CRUSHED

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 11

WORKMAN CRUSHED

—: •-; ;— SLING SLIPS OFF CRANE (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post") ■" , ' AUCKLAND, This Day. Details of th» recent accident in the Newmarket Railway ■•Workshops were given at an inquest concerning ' the death of Edward Boid, aged 40, who was killed' instantly when a steel frame weighing two tons crushed him to the ground. Deceased and other men were lifting steel car frames with a sling from railway truck's on the afternoon of 11th-May, when" tho fatality occurred. Describing the accident,, Thomas H. Jones, a crane driver, employed at the workshops, said. he was engaged on a crano hoisting van frames weighing between two and three tons»from a wagon on to the ground. They were being lifted by two slings tested' approximately at. a lifting power of five'tons each. These slings were hooked in the usual way around the frame, with about, 10ft between the "slings, which . were' 14ft in length. There were, two men below working with witness, one be^ng deceased. "I started my engine and had the load lifted about 6ft above the floor of the wagon, and was slewing the load round to my right when there was a crash," continued the witness. "I found one sling had, slipped off the crane hook and the load had crashed, the left end being on tho ground. Getting out of my cabin I.saw ono of the men pinned to the ground by tho end of. the van frame, which was on his shoulders and head. Then I lowered the load, bringing the high end of tho frame down on tho wagon and tho end pinning deceased Rose." Witness said he had been a crano driver for 20 years, and had lifted many van frames with tackle similarj to that, used on tho day of tho fatality. "I consider tho tackle was quit© in order for the job," he said. "The reason the accident occurred was because the ring of tho left swing slipped off'the crane hook, but'l cannot pass an opinion as to how it occmurredi" Witness said his instructions were "Safety first," and before he hoisted the frame he saw that the ring was properly on the hook. "I think," he added, "that when the load was swung it must have hit something so causing the ring to come off tho hook." . . :. ■ : ' Andrew W. Samson, manager of tho workshops, said he thought the accident was caused by the frame striking something, thus causing the Ting to como off. : . •■■■', Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., returned a verdict of accidental death. •