SETTLER ESCAPES DEATH BY MIRACLE

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2312, 3 December 1925, Page 6

SETTLER ESCAPES DEATH BY MIRACLE

Coat Caught in Flywheel of Engine FLYING HEEL BREAKS SPARKING PLUG At five o’clock yesterday morning, Mr B. Stevens, of Pohangina, escaped death by what may be described as a miracle of chance. He had started the engine in his shed to prepare for shearing a neighbour’s sheep. The morning being cold and damp, he wore a rain coat, which became entangled in the flywheel. He remembers nothing but a jerk and a sensation of choking. Tho shearers jumped to his assistance and found him twisted tightly in the coat on the engine, and unconscious. It is not known how many times he turned on the wheel which was making 4Sn revolutions a minute; but his boot evidently broke tho sparking plug in its rapid passing, so that the engine was stopped, otherwise nothing call'd have saved him. A kindly neighbour speeded him to town lying on pillows in the back scat, when, the doctor found a dislocated shoulder and a badly hriused arm and chest, which will necessitate several months’ rest.