ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11530, 17 March 1898, Page 5

ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES.

United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—; Copyright. Eeceived March 16, 9.40 a.m. SENSATIONAL MINING ACCIDENT. MELBOURNE, March 16. A sensational accident happened in a mine at Bendigo. The cage was being lowered to the 3000 ft level, when the grippers caught in the wood at 1100 ft, about 400 ft of slack wire rope pouring on top of the suspended cage, almost strangling the occupants, who were three hours in fcheir perilous position before being released.

FATAL ACCIDENT AT SYDENHAM. At about midday yesterday a horse harnessed to a light dogcart, owned by Messrs Anderson, ironfounders, bolted from the bottom of Sydenham up Durham Street towards town. It appears that the horse, just after emerging into Durham Street from Brougham Street, became frightened and ran on the footpath into the hedge. Thence he bounded back to the road suddenly, completely upsetting the cart, and throwing the driver violently to the ground. The horse then galloped down Durham Street, dragging the overturned cart behind him. When opposite the Sydenham Hotel, the horse got close to .the footpath, and the cart, in one of its bounds, went over a little girl named Norma Sparks, aged two years, who was playing by the kerbstone. _ The child was dragged along the road inside the cart until it struck the pump_ opposite the Christchurch railway station, a distance of about a mile, when the dead body of the girl, terribly mangled, was released from the cart. The collison with the pump broke one shaft of the cart, and the horse, still running, collided with a cab, broke the other shaft, got free from the wreck of the cart, and continued his course along the belt. A young man, who pluckily tried to stop the runaway, was knocked down, and experienced a narrow escape. Charles Bowley, an experienced coachman, was driving the trap when the horse bolted, and was thrown out and partially stunned. The child is a daughter of Mr A. J. Sparkes. An inquest will bo held at the Eailway Hotel to-day at 9.30 a.m.

A lady cyclist who was was coming down Oxford Street, Lyttelton, yesterday afternoon, had a narrow escape from a serious accident. She attempted to ride down the steep hillside, and got on all right till nearly opposite the Canterbury Hotel, when she lost her pedals, and the machine at once gained the upper hand. The rider kept her seat and succeeded in steering her bicycle over the crossing at Norwich Quay and on towards the railway yard. She was, however, unable to regain control of the machine on the flat, and went with a great smash into a line of trucks which were just then being got under way by the engine. The front wheel of the bicycle struck the middle of the truck, and the rider was thrown forward, but, beyond a severe shaking, she escaped without injury. The bicycle was seriously damaged. A young man named William Doyle, storekeeper at Doyleston, has been admitted to the hospital, suffering from a compound fracture of the right leg. It appears that he was breaking-in a young horse in his paddock, when the animal ran away and eventually capsized the brake. Williams was thrown out with great violence, and in falling one of his feet was caught in the spokes of a wheel. He was picked up and brought to Christchurch by Constable M’Cormack. The brake was badly damaged, but the horse was uninjured.