FATALITY ON KILLS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 225, 21 April 1933, Page 5

FATALITY ON KILLS

Death of Relief Worker

AMBULANCE'S HARD TASK

Christchurch, April 20.—As a suit of a fatality on the Summit Road, Christchurch, on Tuesday afternoon, when George John Christopher Bank, a relief worker, aged 51, met his death, It is possible that a charge of manslaughter will be laid against another man, who is alleged to have been arguing with Bank immediately before he fell.

Detectives inquired into the case and tpok statements from a number of men who were working with Bank when he received the fatal injuries. One relief worker stated that Bank had been concerned in a dispute. "I was working alongside Bank and an altercation arose between Bank and another man," he said. "Bank was twice struck on the body. Ho stumbled and fell about four feet over a bank on to his back. He rose to Ins feet and then fell backward, striking his chin on a stone. He was uhciujSCious when picked up."

At first it was thought that Bank was only stunnea by his fall, but all efforts to restore consciousness failed. After having massaged the injured man's neck for some time, without result, the other men carried him two miles to tne ambulance, which had pulled up at the end of the track. The going was exceedingly difficult, over a steep, tussock-covered hillside, Six men accomplished this task, using an improvised stretcher.

The descent Avas begun, the ambulance proceeding slowly and carefully over the uneven surtace. Projecting boulders and deep watercourses worn in the road maue the going tricky, especially as the road was just wide enough lor a car, with a 3UO-foot drop ii a wheel slipped. The ambulance had one or two narrow escapes from accident, on one occasion the outside rear wheel skidding to within inches of the crumbly brink. Three nursing sisters who accompanied the ambulance did what they could for the unconscious man, but were unable to diagnose any injury, He was alive when he was placed in the ambulance at 3.30 p.m., but upon arrival at the Christchurch Public Hospital he was found to be dead.