THE TUNNEL FATALITY

Southland Times, Issue 19125, 18 December 1923, Page 5

THE TUNNEL FATALITY

INQUEST PROCEEDING. ACCIDENTAL DEATH. (Per United Press Association.) NAPIER, December 17. The inquest on Timothy O’Mahoney and John Robert Hohensee, the victims of the Kaiwaka tunnel accident on November 29, was held to-day. The evidence did not reveal anything to suggest lack of usual precautions and indicated that the fall occured suddenly without the slightest warning. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

A BRAVE ACT. TO GIVE ENTOMBED MEN A CHANCE. It is very seldom a disaster occurs in which there is not a story of heroism to be told. There is one in connection with the Kaiwaka tunnel disaster and as a result of the astounding courage of Mat Conway, Diamond probably owes his life, says the Napier Daily Telegraph. Conway was at the head of the tunnel when the fall took place and the first and only impulse was to flee for safety. This could only be achieved by crawling over the debris to the staging, nearer the opening, which had not collapsed. The three men reached safety and then it was discovered that three of their number were • missing.

Quick as a flash “Mat,” as he is known to hiu mules, made a prompt decision. Baek into the danger zone he went. He climbed the staging, mounted the debris, risked a further fall of earth and made for the pipe which provided a supply of frosh air under pressure. He had remembered that this had been turned off just befor the accident, and without such a supply the men's chances of surviving would be greatly reduced. Ho turned on the check cock and opened the supply, thus permitting the compressed air to circulate wherever there was a crevice through which it could pass. Conway himself would not speak of his act—the thing had to be done and he had done it, despite considerable risk. It returned back over the heap of debris in time to escape being demmed in, if not buried alive, as another fall of earth completely shut off the way of escape.