ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS

Evening Star, Issue 19328, 14 August 1926, Page 10

ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS

crushed' under carriage. A train examiner named R. <l. M'Clatchio was fatally injured in the railway yard, Te Kuiti, yesterday. _ It appears that M'Clatchio was working under a single carriage, when several cattle trucks were shunted on to it. M'Clatchio was caught under the carriage and his chest was crushed, ribs broken, and heart and lungs injured. Ho was removed to hospital, where ho died a few hours later. He was_ about 35, and had a wife and two children. An inquest will bo held. A LINESMAN’S DEATH. _ At the inquest on Maurice O’Kano, aged 19 years, a linesman employed by the Hutt Valley Power Board, who became entangled in the wires and fell from the top of a pole to the ground at Porirua, the evidence showed that deceased was engaged in wiring work, and told an assistant to turn the current on. While the assistant was doing this deceased, for some unexplained reason, climbed the polo again and was seen lying over the crossbar with his feet on the wires. He was not then wearing rubber gloves. The current was turned off, and two men attempted to lower O’Kane to the ground with a rope, but he slipped out of it and fell about 14ft. His shoulder appeared to take the weight of the fall, and this caused injuries resulting in his death. A verdict of accidental death was returned. One witness stated that a fall such as the one deceased had, had been known to resuscitate a man after electrocution. WORKMAN “ SHOCKED.” E. Edwards, an employee of the Lyttelton Harbor Board, while working at No. 7 wharf at Lyttelton received an electric shock, as a result of which ho had to bo removed to the casualty ward. Edwards was boring holes in a wooden beam when the augur, in passing through the beam, connected with one of the livo wires of the electric capstan. He was knocked backwards several feet and rendered unconscious. His condition is not considered serious. RAILWAY FATALITY. The dead body of a middle-aged man, believed to be A. F. Elliott, was found alongside the railway track at the Southdown crossing last night by the driver of a train. There was severe injury to the head, and the body was placed on the train and brought to Auckland. How the fatality occurred is not yet known. Later the body was identified as that of A. F. Elliott, a resident of Mangcre, employed by Bucklands, Ltd.—Auckland P.A. SUPPOSED DROWNING. L. R. Fitzpatrick, a resident of Huntly, is reported missing. Ho is believed to have been drowned in the river. A search resulted in his bicycle being found standing against a telegraph pole and his cap on the edge of the river bank, where there is a sheer drop of 10ft. The river was in high Hood when he disappeared.—Auckland Press Association telegram. A FRACTURED SKULL. Ernest Herbert Wilmol, a resident of Romuera, is in hospital with a fractured skull and a fractured log, as the result of a collision between his car and another, driven by R. Rennie, of Oneluinga—Auckland P.A. message.