PLUNGED TO DEATH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16212, 24 August 1923, Page 12

PLUNGED TO DEATH.

♦ i, HORRIFIED SPECTATORS. TRAGEDY IN MELBOURNE. In full view of many passers-by, an old man flung himself over the parapet of the bridge at Bridge road terminus, Burnley, and was drowned before any effort' could be /made to"save him, says a Meubourne paper. Tlie victim was poorly clad. He had been leaning against tlie parapet. S«Hdenly ho scrambled over the high iron railing, stood for a moment on tlie outer iron ledge, and then fell 60ft into the flooded river below.

Passers-by ran to tho bridge, looked over, and saw tho man swept away by the Swift-running stream. He sank 300 yards from the bridge. The horrified spectators could do nothing to save him. Before his fatal plunge the man stood for a long time looking at the water, but little attention was paid to him, passers thinking him an elderly invalid who was enjoying the sunshine. He, was a short, bent men, pale-faced, bi'owneyed, and grey whiskers. Ho wore a dark overcoat and hat, and as ho leaned against the railing his hands shook slightly. Inside the railed-off enclosure at the east end of the bridge, where repairs are in progress, there is danger, if children venture there, of their falling through. It is necessary or a workman to be there to keep children away, for there is a school nearby. Mr Albert Gardiner, of Longwell road, Auburn, in charge of tho repair gang, was on the watch, and had just warned a child to keep away from the enclosure, when lie turned,' and saw flic elderly stranger with one leg over the parapet at. the middle of tho bridge. “I thought at first,” said Mr Gardiner “that, the man had dropped his pipe, on the outer ledge, and was try ip g to recover it, regardless of tho/dauger. I shouted ‘Come back,’ and ran toward him. But before 1 could reach him he swung himself over tho parapet, and seemed to jump off tho ledge just where Urn current was runniug fastest.” When workmen erecting scaffolding under the bridge heard a. big splash, their view lor tho moment was obscured by tho heavy stone • pillars, and the man’s form wa*, swept some distance along before they saw it. When they saw it they did not realiso it was a human being, Had they dolio so there might have been a. chance of rescuing tho man. When the erics from above told them of the tragedy, the man had been swept out of sight behind the willows lining tho river. mammmmmmmammmmm