BOX COMPANY FATALITY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 September 1924, Page 4

BOX COMPANY FATALITY.

INQUEST ON THE VICTIM. An inquest' into the death of William Henry Hart was held at ELtham on Saturday before Mr A. M. Mowlem, coroner. Mr J. L. Weir appeared for the Box Co., Mr T. B. Crump for the deceased’s widow, Mr W. J. Mountioy for the Labour Department, Mr li. McGregor, Inspector of Machinery, for the Marine Department, and Mr A. A. Stewart for the South British Insurance Co. John Hart, an employee at the box factory for seven years, said that the deceased was his son, and had also been an employee of the factory for four or five years. His duties were connected with machinery. Witness gave evidence of identification. Deceased was a married man with three children, and was aged between 33 and 34. William Campbell Bigg, overseer ,at the Egmont Box Factory, said that the deceased, Taylor and he were standing at the deceased’s machine, talking. Deceased and Taylor had been working the night previous on the main shaft. Witness suggested to Taylor that he should go down to the main shaft to see if the work done would give sufficient clearance to. put a new pulley on. Witness was taking the measurements at the main shaft, when deceased came behind him, remarking that he had given witness Bin. clearance. Witness, Taylor and deceased went further along the shaft to see what could be done with a disused drive from an old fan. When looking up the fan race, witness asked Hart to go up the race and knock on the roof. Witness was to have gone upstairs and see where the knocking was solas td cut through. At that time deceased was -further up the shaft. Witness had his. back turned to. the deceased, and the next that he saw was that the deceased had his apron caught in the shaft and that he was trying to .pull it off. Witness caught him by the shoulders and pulled, but suddenly the deoeased was pulled out of his hands and witness was knocked over. At this time Taylor had run up to stop the machinery. Witness had to lie under the shaft till the machinery was stopped, when it was found that deceased had all his clothing ripped off. To Constable Townsend : He had been overseer for 13 months. He had had no other experience. The main shaft drive was 9ft. underground. The main drive was 7ft. square, and the main shaft- was 3Mn. in diameter, running along the whole length of the drive. The shaft revolved 205 times a minute. There was a clearance of 4ft. from the shaft to the wall where .they walked backwards and forwards. There was no obstruction on the shaft at that particular place. The deceased was familiar with the work; he had been down in the drive hundreds of times. In witness’ opinion nothing could have been done to prevent the accident. The deceased was wearing the usual sack, apron,- which was tied with ropes. To Mr Weir: Regarding his experience, he always conferred with Mr Brooker, an experienced man. To his knowledge there had not been a fatal accident in the 26 years’ working of the mill. , _ ‘ To Mr McGregor: He had not noticed that the man had paid special attention to the notices posted by the Government. The wearing of ' sack aprons had not been prohibited by the company or the workmen’s unions. Mr Weir; Have von ever warned the men against wearing sack aprons?—> Yes, we have warned the men not to go near the running shaft with aprons on. Mr Mountioy: In this oase could you not have made a survey before the work started? —Yes, I might have; but I have a lot of other work to do. » Who is allowed to go down?—The oiler, myself and Mr Brooker. Have you posted any notice?—No, but they all know. The coroner: Was deceased asked to go down? —No. » - Mr Mountjoy: Why did not tell him to go back?—He came down. Don’t vou think men working machinery should wear dungarees instead af aprons?—Yes, in this case. To Mr Crump.: Deceased attended t4| a graining machine. Like all the other machines in the factory, it was operated' from the main shaft. The shaft was revolving when they, went down. The deceased was responsible" for the lubrication for the whole of the shaft. Mr McGregor: Is the oiling done while the shaft is revolving?—Yes, but the men have been warned. t You have taken steps to stop it?— Yes. They have been warned repeatedly-

The coroner: When you say “repeatpeatedly.” do you mean that you told the deceased repeatedly?—Yes. Allan Taylor, an employee at the box factory, corroborated Mr Rigg’s evidence. As deceased stepped behind Mr Rigg to go up the fan drive and as he swung around, his apron went over the shaft. He called out “Break it.” and Mr Rigg caught hold of him. Witness then rushed to the engine-room, when the engine was stopped immediately. To Mr Mountioy: Overalls were the most suitable dress to wear among machinery. Do you think it was a safe place?— Yes, absolutely. Accidents will happen. ■ i

To Mr McGregor: Gyde would have had to go through the belts to do< the oiling. There was no provision for passing tin-oGgu. “It was fortunate that there were not two accidents instead of one,” declared Mr McGregor. Douglas Robert Gyde, another employee, said he was Hart’s assistant m oiting in the main shaft. The oiling was done only once a week, and the majority of the bearings could be oiled when the machinery was in motion. It was the custom to oil the majority of the bearings when the machinery "was moving. The oiling could have been done when the machinery was stopped. He had only been doing the work for seven or eight weeks. Constable Townsend: Do you consider that there is any particular danger in oiling?—No. Hart did no oiling yesterday morning. Witness said that deceased revolved on the shaft and his head struck the wall. Were there any instructions from the company that you. were not to wear an apron down there? —No, but the deceased told me always to take off my apron when going down there. Mr McGregor: Did the deceased instruct you to oil the machinery before it was going?—No. Were the officials aware that you were oiling the machinery when it was going?—Not that I know of. Have they told you not to oil the machinery when it was not in motion ? —No. Dr. H. A. Cooper said that he was called to the Box ..Factory at about 8 a.m. He saw the body of the deceased. The top of the skull and the brain were entirely absent. The limbs were apparently seriously injured. Dehead cad struck the wall as he was swung round. Although the shaft was then stopped, deceased’s clothing was \v»*unfl tightly round it. “In these matters I have to enquire when, where ano toy what means a person meets his death.” said Mr Mowlem in giving his verdict. The first two questions are quite easy to answer, and I don’t anticipate much difficulty in

answering the third question. We have the fact that the deceased, contrary to his own instructions to another employee and his assistant, went down into the shaft tunnel wearing wliat he should not have worn—an apron. Front the evidence, I can’t say "what more could have been done to protect human life. I have viewed the place myself. It is reasonable to ask men not working in the shaft to go down there for any other purpose, tor there is plenty of room. Of course, one could suggest plenty of things to* the company. For instance, the shaft could run in a wooden tunnel —that is from the layman’s point of view. 1 don’t think from the evidence this morning that there is the faintest blame on the management. If the deceased had gone down there and taken off his apron the possibility is that he would not have met with the accident.’’

“1 think some people ought to be congratulated that there are not two inquests instead of one,” continued the coroner. “Gyd© goes down with liis apron on when he is told not to. It seems that if men will take the risk they will have to pay the penalty. I can say that there is no negligence on the part of any person. Therefore I will return an open verdict. As far as the inquest goes, I can’t say that there is any blame attachable to anyone save that the man did what he knew he should not have done. It is very sad for men to lose their lives in this way.” A verdict that death was due to injuries received through being thrown against a wall through being caught in a revolving shaft was returnied.Argus.