FATALLY SCALDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 July 1930, Page 2

FATALLY SCALDED

ENGINE-DRIVER’S DEATH.

[per press association.]

AUCKLAND, July 23

Scalded by steam while he was pinned beneath an overturned locomotive on the railway line near Mahia to-day at midday, Robson Mackwood, of Western Springs, received injuries from which he died in the Auckland hospital. R. Leigh, of Papakura, who was Mackwood’s companion on the engine, was also scalded and bruised, but, after receiving medical attention, he was able to proceed to his home. Engaged on the duplication of the main line to Papakura, Mackwood and Leigh were operating a locomotive which comprised a donkey engine geared 'to the wheels of the truck. A load of filling had been emptied from a rake of nine trucks on the temporary line, and the return journey for' another load had been commenced, when the the engine left the rails, overturned, and fell down the embank-1 ment. j

Besides the driver, three of the workers were standing on the locomotive. All of them, except Mackwood, managed to jump clear, but, although Leigh avoided being pinned down, he too was caught by the escaping steam. Mackwood was pinned by one arm beneath the engine, from which a fierce jet of steam played over his face, and chest. In spite of the risk of scalds, the other men on the line got close to Mackwood and dug him out from under the engine within a few minutes. Mackwood’s condition was then critical. He died in the hospital eight hours later.

The. deceased was 42 years of age. He was married and ’had a family of six, all of them under ten years of age.