MINER KILLED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 13

MINER KILLED.

BROKEN KECK {THE CAUSE,

OPERATING HAULING WINCH,

EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

DARGAVILLE, Friday. As the result of a terrific blow on the right side of the neck by a recoiling brake-drum lever Mr. Albert Nightingale, aged 29, was instantaneously killed at the Avoca Coal Mine workings yesterday afternoon. Death was due to a broken neck.

Mr. Nightingale was a member of the partnership of Hikurangi miners engaged in the coalmining enterprise at Avoca. He was married only last October. His home was at Hikurangi and his parents reside in Whangarei, his father being a coachbuilder.

At an inquest held before Mr. J. A. McLean, district coroner, at the mine this morning, George Francis Reynell, one of the partners, said that deceased's duties at the time were to operate the engine and friction-hauling winch on a hill-top 11£ chains from the mouth of the shaft. This gear was employed to haul trucks laden with coal to the top of the hill. Nightingale was alone, other workmen, including witness, being at the mineshaft.

Delay in the return to the shaft-mouth from the hill-top of a rake of empty trucks gave the first indication to the men below that something was amiss. Thereupon, Joseph Lister went up to the engine-shed to investigate the cause and informed witness of the accident. A wire rope attached to the trucks and wound about the winch-drum was found to have become entangled around the spindle upon which the drum revolved. Witness considered that too much slack rope must have been allowed as the trucks were pushed off by deceased at the top of the hill. The loop thus caused on the drum had fallen over on to the spindle about which it had been wound until the rope had become suddenly taut under the weight of the trucks as they ran downhill. As this happened the fric-tion-brake lever operated by deceased had jerked upwards rapidly, striking Nightingale on the neck beneath the right ejr. John Lister gave corroborative evidence. Dn C. H. Crump, who had bee» called by telephone immediately after the accident, said that the cause of death was a broken neck. Death would have been instantaneous.

The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death. Deceased's father-in-law, Mr. J. Leighton, is one of the partners in the mine enterprise.