KILLED IN A SHAFT.

Northern Advocate, 15 February 1912, Page 2

KILLED IN A SHAFT.

ELECTRIC SHOCK.

AN HEROIC STRUGGLE

Benjamin Jones, a rock-driller, residing with his wife and child at 121 St John's Road, Forest Lodge, was killed in the tewer outfall work, Long Bay, shortly after midnight recently. He was electrocuted through the current of an electric rock-drill short circv.iting. In some inexplicable way he Set foul of the electrically charged machine, and, despite the heroic efforts of his mate could not be extricated in time from his awful position.

Deceased and his mate, John Davis, were working at the rock face of a tv.nnel at the 100 ft level of shaft 6A. Davis was at the rock manipulating the drills and the noise of the machinery and motor in the confined space was almost deafening, so that the first intimation to Davis that anything was wrong was an agonised scream that rang above the roar of the machinery. He turned, and saw his mate lying across the machine he had been driving, with his face livid, and writhing in unspeakable agony.

In a flash he realised that his mate had been, in some manner, caught by the current, and he at once rushed to the switch in order to shut it ofl.

But something was badly wrong with the whole electric installation, and Davis, dazed and shaken, was flung violently back against the walls ol the tunnel.

Undeterred by this, the plucky miner wrapped his old felt hat about his hands hoping that the non-conductiv-ity of the felt would protect him, but the hat must have been damp, for as soon as his hands touched the switch he was thrown to the ground' by another terrific shock.

Dizzy and half-stunned, the miner still essayed to have his mate, and realising that it would be fatal to touch the switch again, tried to pull Jones fiom the contact with the machinery, Again he failed for the current held the now insensible Jones to the metal, and Davis sustained another sickening shock when he touched his electrified body. By this time the candles of the miners had become extinguished and Davis found himself in the dark, stumbling among- live wires and ankle deep in wate \ in imminent peril of hii own life. He received btill another shock as he groped his way to the shaft, but ho managed with great grit to climb the 100 ft to the flat, where the main switch was, and there he turned off the current.

Securing a light,. Davis descended again to the tunnel, and hauled the inanimate form of his mate into a cleared space, and at once proceeded to try and revive him.. But the strength of the current had been too much for any man to survive, and, though Davis and other willing helpers labored incessantly in desperate hope, when Di\ Wallace, of the Coast Hospital, arrived he pronounced life extinct. The cause of the deadly short circuit is not definitely known, but it is surmised that one of the drills leaning against fnrt walls of the tunnel

near the motor, slipped owing to vibration and crime into contact with

one of the terminals. As Jones was standing on a wet. board his body helped to complete the short circuit, and he was caught in the deadly current.

The post-mortem examination revealed the fact that deceased had fallen face downwards on the machine for there were marks of burns on his face and right hand. There were seveial other marks and bruises on the body, but, in the opinion of Dr. A. A. Palmer, who conducted the autopsy, these had been caused after death. The body was first taken to the morgue and then to the dead man's home.