CRUSHED BY WINCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19732, 10 September 1938, Page 2

CRUSHED BY WINCH

ACCIDENT ON ISLAND TO HOSPITAL BY PLANE (Por Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. A naval amphibian aircraft, a motor ambulance and a dinghy were the contracting means of transport used in conveying from Cuvier Island in Colville Channel to the Auckland Hospital yesterday, a man who had been severely injured in a winch accident. The victim is Mr. George Edmund Davidson, aged 52, a widower, a Public Works Department employee, who had his right leg fractured and severely crushed when he was jammed against a tree by a winch that suddenly lifted free of its bed while he was operating it.

One of a party of Public Works employees taken to Cuvier Island last Monday to help in the erection of the radio beacon, Mr. Davidson was the brakeman on the winch when the accident occurred. A truck was being lowered by the winch down a steep incline when the winch lifted out of its bed without warning, the handle striking Mr. Davidson and crushing his leg against a tree. A workmate had a narrow escape from injury. Appeal By Itadio

While the dressings were being applied to Mr. Davidson’s leg, the lighthouse keeper at Cuvier Island communicated with Auckland by radio reporting the mishap and asking that help should be sent. The naval authorities in Auckland were approached and at 3.30 o’clock, an hour after the accident. Lieutenant Nicholl, R.N., took of! with a radio operator from the Royal New Zealand Air Force base at Hobsonville in the Walrus amphibian attached to H.M.S. Leander. Cruising at about 100 miles an hour, the Walrus made the run of some GO miles in a little over half mi hour and landed without difiiculty near the lighthouse, the sea fortunately being almost flat calm.

Workmates of Mr. Davidson rowed him out to the waiting aircraft in a dinghy and the difficult task of putting him aboard the machine commenced. Although there was practically no swell and the dinghy could lie close alongside the amphibian, the comparatively small entrance to the rear cockpit made it impossible to put Mr. Davidson aboard in a prone position. With the greatest possible care, he was lifted aboard and once inside the machine could lie at full length on a seat of cushions.

Last Stage in Ambulance

Flying conditions were ideal and the aerial journey was comfortable for the patient. At 5 o’clock, the Walrus was seen approaching Hobsonville and five minutes later she was on the water taxi-ing to the slipway which she mounted under her own power. The ambulance from Auckland was waiting on the concrete apron and was backed up behind the wing of the Walrus to simplify the transfer of •the patient. Although suffering acute pain and weak from the loss of blood, Mr. Davidson was surprisingly cheerful. He asked for a drink of water and proceeded to light his pipe and superintend his transfer himself.