DEFECTIVE CHAINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 2

DEFECTIVE CHAINS

CAUSE COBDEN FATALITY. , An inquest into the death of James Mduat Laughton, which occurred last 'Thursday evening in the Grey Hospital, following an accident whilst emptying a truck of stone on. the North Tip. at Cobden, about 11 a.m. on that day. was opened this morning before Mr W. Meldrum, Coroner. Mr W. P- McCarthy appeared for deceased’s wife and family, and Mr F. A. Kitchingham for the Greymouth Harbour Board.

Dr J. F. C. Moore (Medical Superintendent at the 1 Grey Hospital) said deceased was admitted to the Hospital about mid-day on Thursday, September 8, suffering profoundly from shock, due to injury to the right and left lumbar regions,—the left more seriously injured than the right, extensive haemorrhage was present in the tissues of the left side, and the suggested diagnosis was shock and rupture of the kidneys. Deceased’s condition remained practically the same throughout the day, and about 9.15 p.m. he developed an attack of abdominal pain which resembled angina pectoris and death ensued within ten minutes, being due to angina following injury to the kidney, and splanchnic shock. He did not discuss the accident with deceased. To Mr McCarthy : Death was purely and simply the result of the injuries received. .To the Coroner : The appearance of the injury was totally confined to the back —the abrasion and bruising. Andrew Laughton, Railway employee, a brother of deceased, said his brother was employed by the .Greymouth Harbour Board at the Cobden Quarry. He interviewed deceased in the Grey Hospital, but did not ask him anything regarding the accident, as he did not seem well enough to be questionedGordon Curtis, a fireman employed at the Cobden Quarry works, stated that on the morning of September 8 he was employed at the North Tip emptying trucks of stone. Five trucks had been taken out to the North Tip, one of which had been emptied. The empty truck was taken back, and another shunted against the stopper at the end of the Tip. He uncoupled the empty truck from the front of the full truck and gave the signal for- the engine-driver to pull it away. He did so for a distance of about 20 feet. Deceased and Harry Skates chained the two back wheels of the truck to the rails. /Witness then undid the two clips at the back of the truck ready to tip it. He picked up a wallaby jack and stood between the draw bar and the south buffer and put the jack in position for tipping. Deceased also had a jack on the north side, and he got into position for tipping. Skates stood on the outside of the south side of the truck with a double purchase jack. He put his jack into position for tipping. Ernie Morgan, the engine driver, also gave a hand with witness’s jack. After the truck had been jacked up a, certain height deceased’s jack had run out, so witness held the weight whilst deceased got a fresh hold. Witness then kept jacking until his jack ran out, and the stone was ji|st about balanced to go off the truck. Deceased said lie could manage it with his jack. Witness stepped aside and left Morgan to take his jack out, when the stone started to slide off the truck. The truck appeared to lift up at the back and broke the chains and shot backwards, throwing Morgan clear (the buffer struck Morgan), whilst, it threw deceased a distance of 20 feet to the empty truck behind. Deceased struck his back on the empty truck whilst his left arm landed on the south buffer of the empty truck. He no sooner landed there when the travelling truck struck him, jamming his arm between the two buffers. It also appeared to crush his chest. Witness rushed forward, assisted by Morgan, and pulled the truck off deceased. They carried him to the trailer of the locomotive and brought him to the quarry, from whence he was taken to the Hospital. Chains produced were the chains in use. To his knowledge they had been three months in use. He did not know how long the chains had been there. On examining the chain in the afternoon he found a clean break in one link and a’flaw in another. There were two chains and both broke. He did not see the chain s break.

To Mr McCarthy : Deceased was a ganger and his duties consisted of relaying the line and emptying trucks, and at the time of the accident he was doing his right work. He had been doing it for some time. The method of chaining the wheels of the trucks was the usual method employed. It was done under the Engineer’s instructions. They had tipped hundreds of trucks in this way. He had never tnade an examination of the chains.

To Mr Kitchingham: Deceased was in sole charge of the operations. Henry .Skates, employed by the Harbour Board at the North Tip, said he was engaged with deceased discharging the trucks at the Tip on Thursday, .September 8. He assisted to chain the wheels. The chain breaking on deceased’s side caused the accident. Had the chains held everything would have been all right. To Mr Kitchingham : He had been working on the North Tip for the past six months. The chains (in Court) had been in use about three months. He had never examined them for flaws.

Edward Brown, Inspector of Machinery at Greymouth, said he examined the chains and found them very defective, one link had fractured at the weld. There was also another faulty link (pointed out). Tn the second chain one link showed a crystaline fracture. The chain had not been annealed in order to give it the requisite tensile strength. Examination would have revealed, the defects. To Mr McCarthy. Had the chains been in good condition they would have been strong enough for the work they were called on to do. To Mr Kitchingham : The flaws could develop while the chains were in use, climatic and other conditions would affect them. The flaws appeared to be three months old. Richard Jones Williams, Harbour Board overseer, stated he was in charge of the operations on the North Tiphead. The chains (produced) had been in use from three to four months?. They were not subjected to any particular test. He had been 40 years in the employ of the Harbour Board. , To Mr McCarthy: The chains were hot new ones arid had not been specially tested. No test was applied'from time to time. All precautions were taken to have the trucks chained to the line. The chains had not been

examined since they went into use on the Tip. To Mr Kitchingham : He was a general overseer, but was not in charge of the actual operations. Where flaws were detected in the chains, the chains were thrown out at once. The supply of materials for use by the men was not stinted. There had been no previous serious accident on the Harbourworks. THE VERDICT. The verdict Was that the deceased, James Mouat Laughton, came to his death at the GreyriroUth Hospital on September 8, 1927, fropi angina pectoris, following injury to the kidneys and shock resulting from an accident at the North Tip, Cobden. The evidence showed that the accident was due to defective,chains being used to hold the tvheels of the trucks in position while the stone was being tipped out.