KILLED BY LIGHTNING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21258, 12 February 1931, Page 20

KILLED BY LIGHTNING.

THREE QUEENSLAND DEATHS. SHELTERING FROM STORM. Lightning was responsible for appalling tragedies on the Darling Downs, Queensland, when during a violent storm on January 14 three men were struck dead, two of them at a place called Douglas and one at Gowrie Junction. The victims at Douglas were John Jacob Lau, 53, and August Monteit, 40. The two men with others were thrashing maize with a busker and sheller in a paddock on Mr Lau’a property, when they noticed a storm working up in the south-west. They left the work and went for shelter in a shed in the vicinity, Mr Monteit seated himself on a mowing machine and Mr Lau climbed into a cart. They had been in the shed barely two minutes when a blinding flash of lightning struck the building and Mr Lau and Mr Monteit were killed instantly. A remarkable feature is that two other men seated close by escaped injury, and as far as can be ascertained no damage was done to the building or machinery. The victim of the other tragedy was Albert Collier, 60. He had ceased ploughing when the storm commenced and tethered his horses too a fence, after which he sought shelter under a dray, which was struck by a flash.

The ambulance from Toowoomba was summoned, and it was found that Mr Collier was suffering from large contused wounds and partial paralysis of the right side. After first aid treatment had been given, Mr Collier was taken to a private hospital in Toowoomba, where he died shortly afterwards.