ACCIDENTS AT OTIRA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16050, 16 October 1915, Page 9

ACCIDENTS AT OTIRA.

ELDERLY WORKER KILLED. ANOTHER MAN INJURED Two accidents, one of which was immediately fatal, occurred at the Otira tunnel last Tuesday morning. John Byrne, aged about 60, was killed through being crushed between an electric motor and the wall of the tunnel. The deceased, who was sent to unload shingle at a concrete mixer, had been in a man-hole, and stepped out in front of the electric* motor. The motorman called out, but Byrne did not hear him, owing to the noise of the mixer. He was crushed between the motor and the concrete wall of the tunnel. He was conveyed to the hospital, where Dr. Cairns made an examination, and found him dead. Byrne had been work» ing in the tunnel only for a few weeks. He leaves a widow and 13 children at Stafford. Shortly after 6 a.m. on the same day. J. Chalmers, who was working at the Bealey end of the tunnel, received injuries from a fall of' earth that nece;| sitated his removal to the Christchurch Hospital. Chalmers was detached from the other workers, when a fall of earth took place near him. In an endeavour to escape it he leaned towards the wall, but another fall occurred, and covered him from the chest down. His mates got him out, and found that he was suffering from internal injuries, and that his left arm and right side were hurt. At the Christchurch Hospital it was found he had suffered a fractured pelvis, and it was deemed necessarv to operate. Chalmers has a wife and four children.