BUSH FATALITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 17

BUSH FATALITY

LOG-HAULING ACCIDENT MAN STRUCK DOWN BY TREE [by telegraph —OWN correspondent] OPOTIKI, Friday The circumstances surrounding the death of Allan Kennedy, of Royal Oak, Auckland, who was killed yesterday as the result of a bush working accident, were investigated at an inquest before Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., at Opotiki to-day. Sergeant Millar conducted the proceedings on behalf of the police. Dr. H. M. Budd said he examined deceased when he was in Mr. Sloan's lorry on the Motu Hill. lie was dying from the effects of a fractured skull. The injuries were consistent with being struck by a falling tree. Norman Baker said ho was employed by Mr. Sloan at W hitikau. Witness was assisting in hauling logs yesterday morning and deceased was on the whistle string. A block was attached to a matai tree for hauling the logs, but the tree was uprooted by the strain. He did not see deceased struck down and it was only about 15 minutes later that he found deceased near the head of the fallen tree.

Mr. J. Sloan, carrier and contractor, said he had a contract at Whitikau. Deceased and two others were employed by him. They were hauling logs out of tho bush with a steam hauler and a log was hauled almost up to the tree to which the wire was attached. Deceased had been operating the whistle and witness told him to get some other gear to cut up the log. These tools were not in the direction of the tree and he thought deceased had gone toward them. Later deceased was found just within reach of the to'p branches. Witness immediately rrfng for a doctor and the others took Kennedy to the lorry, but he died on the way to the hospital. Witness said two other logs had been hauled out by the same tree. The coroner's verdict was that deceased died at Toatoa from a fractured skull, the injuries being consistent with those received in an accident while hauling a log.