FATALITIES

Inangahua Times, 3 December 1934, Page 2

FATALITIES

A fatality occurred in Lake Brunner oa Saturday, ihe victim being Mr John Arthur Kelleher, an employee of the Brunner Sawmilling Coy. The deceased went in the Lake for a bath, and was seen to be in difficulties, and his wife, who was unable to swim, attempted to reach him, but found it would take her beyond her depth. Kelleher disappeared, aDd did not rise again Before be sank be was seen to be endeavouring to remove bis false teeth, wbicb were proved sub* sequenlly to have been the cause of the fatality. The body was recovered about an hour after tbe occurrence by Tom Hibhs, and Dr Wilkinson pronounced life to be extinct. He also found that tbe cause of death was tbe fact that tbe deceased’s artificial teetb bad lodged in his gullet and choked bim, tbe fatality thus not being primarily due to drowning. The deceased leaves, besides bis wife, a number of relatives in Southland-

Through a car which he waa driving going over fche bank on the Otira Gorge between Friday night and yesterday, Mr Dudley Buddie, Manager of the National Insurance Company, Christchurch, met his death. The deceased was last seen alive at 530 p.m on Saturday At 1 30 o’clock yesterday, Messrs D Bowman and K. B. Bain, who were proceeding from Christchurch to the West Coast, noticed the deceased's car in the gully, but there was no sign of any occupant, and for the time being it was thought that he had not been precipitated over the Gorge with the car, 200 feet below the road. At 330 p.m , however, tbe body was located some distance away from the ear, but higher up the gullyside, amongst some rocks and bush, the discovery being made by Mr Robert P. Hampson, of Otira. The point where the fatality occurred was at Candy’s Bend, about four miles beyond Otira