PIPE-LINE TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 123, 20 November 1935, Page 9

PIPE-LINE TRAGEDY

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

CORONER'S FINDING

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, November 19.

The full story of Monday's tragic accident at Lake Coleridge, in which three men lost their lives when water from ihe lake was admitted accidentally to a pipe-line in which they were working, was told before Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., Coroner, at an inquest into the deaths of the men at Lake Coleridge yesterday. The men were Eric Thomas Cockburn, single, aged 39, of Lake Coleridge; William Henry Crowe, single, aged 46, of Lake Coleridge; and Frank Coates, married, aged 43, also of Lake Coleridge.

The Coroner found that they died from injuries received through the pipe-line in which they were working being accidentally filled with water.

"I am satisfied on the evidence that the electrical and mechanical equipment used to control the entrance of the water to the pipe-line was in good order," said the Coroner, in announcing his verdict, "and I am also satisfied that it was not affected by lightning." (It was mentioned in the evidence that lightning had been thought of as the agent which released the water, but after consideration and testing of the machinery had been discounted.)

"It seems to me from the evidence, that the closed gate at the head of the pipe-line was opened through the "open" button in the valve-house having been pressed. From circumstances set out in the evidence of two of the witnesses, Michael John McHugh and William Henderson who were in the valvehouse when the button was pressed, and after inspecting the valve-house I think the button was accidentally and unknowingly pressed by Henderson. I also think that when men are working in a pipe-line the power should be cut off from the gate controls affecting that pipe-line."

Henderson and McHugh were members of the gang employed on painting and repair work on the pipe-line. McHugh went into the valve-house to shelter from the rain. Henderson later entered the valve-house to rest, and according to the evidence tried to approach McHugh from behind, intending to surprise him.

Henderson was unable in his evidence to tell exactly how he walked through the valve-house in approaching McHugh, but it was suggested by the Coroner that he -walked past the switch-board, in front of which were several obstacles. This witness did not admit.

The Coroner suggested that in passing these obstacles Henderson might have put out his hand to steady himGelf, and so accidentally put his thumb or finger on the starting button which raised the water gate, releasing water in the pipe-line, but witness did not admit this.

The buttons which set in motion the electrical machinery to open the gates are recessed,- so that they could not, it was agreed by witnesses, be pressed by an accidental brush of an arm or a shoulder.