BURIED IN DEBRIS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19503, 9 December 1937, Page 6

BURIED IN DEBRIS

YOUNG MAN PERISHES WHAREKAKAHO FATALITY RAILWAY CUTTING FALLS OTHER MEN GET CLEAR A fatal accident occurred early this morning in a large cutting below Wharekakaho, or Earl's Camp, on the Gisborne-Waikokopu railway construction work, Herbert Good, aged 26, a married man, being buried under a fall of earth.

Mr. Good, who was engaged on a contract, was working with a companion on the face of the cutting and when the debris started to come down he ran out -n'to the open part of the cutting, but evidently was caught by the landslide, pinned by the legs, and buried under tons of debris. His companion ran into the heading and escaped. There were a number of other men working in the cutting, but they had no difficulty in getting clear.

Wharekakaho, one of the larger camps on the Gisborne end of the route, is located on the side of a hill about 10 miles beyond Bartlett's from Gisborne. There is a large filling across a gully to the cutting where the fatality occurred.

Double shifts are engaged on the cutting, work commencing at an early hour in the morning. The accident took place at 5.45 o'clock. Forty men working in relays hastily removed the debris in an endeavour to recover the injured man, whose position was loca'ted at 8.25 o'clock, and another 15 or 20 minutes elapsed before he could be got clear. In the meanwhile a medical man, who had been brought to the scene, could only pronounce his life to be extinct.

The late Mr. Good was the second son of Mrs. Herbert Good, Perry street, Mangapapa, and of the late Mr. Herbert Good. The deceased was educated at the Mangapapa School, following which he was employed by the Poverty Bay Herald Company for about seven years. He had been working for some months on the railway construction job, where he met with a previous accident, being kicked by a horse.

The deceased married Miss Ploughman in Gisborne and, besides his widow, he leaves two small children. He is survived also by a brother and two sisters.

An inquest will be held to-mor-row.