WORKERS INJURED

Northern Advocate, 4 August 1932, Page 6

WORKERS INJURED

INOPPORTUNE EXPLOSION. A PECULIAR OCCURRENCE. (Special to “Northern Advocate.”) AUCKLAND, This Day.

Several relief workers were injured when they were struck -by a shower of rock and debris, following the explosion of a blasting charge on the Old Stone Jug Reserve, Western Springs, late yesterday afternoon. About 12 men, some on foot and others cycling, had just started to go home along the Great North Road, a considerable distance from wdiere the blasting operations had been conducted earlier in the day. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion, and the men saw that a charge had been fired about 300 yards away. In a moment they were hit by falling rock. Mr Richard Lanigan, 28, of Point Chevalier Road, who was riding a bicycle, was struck by a boulder measuring nearly a foot across, which crashed on to the front of his machine across the handle-bars. Both his hands were severely injured, the thumb of the left hand being broken. The front wheel of the bicycle was smashed. Several other workers were hit by smaller stones, receiving minor cuts, while one man received injuries to the chest.

Mr Lanigan was taken to the Auckland Hospital, where he was attended in the casualty ward. He later returned home. ‘ The work on which the men were *ngaged is being carried out by the dockland City Council under the No. 5 scheme, and <:it consists principally in levelling the rough scoria country on the reserve..