SENSATIONAL ACCIDENT

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 240, 11 May 1933, Page 6

SENSATIONAL ACCIDENT

Man's Fall Ovar Cliff RAVINE THOUSAND FEET DEEP Saved by Being Caught in Scrub Blenheim, May 10. While mustering on the high country on the Leatham run Mr. Alexander A. Ward, a son of Mr. G. J. Ward, of Blenheim, met with a sensational accident, falling headlong over a precipitous cliff and being saved from death in the rocky creek bed a thousand feet below only by the fact that his downward progress was arrested by a tough shrub. He was badly knocked about, and is now an inmate of the Stafford Hospital The full extent of his injuries has not yet been determined, but it not anticipated that there will be any serious complications. So far he is being treated for broken ribs, a badly sprained ankle, head In3uries, and numerous cuts and abrasions, in addition to which he is bruised all over. Mr. Ward, with a party, had been mustering above the snow line in the and precipitous back country of the run, and found himself ahead of his sectiju when he reachH the lip of an ibyrs, some 1200 feet in depth, at the bottom of which flow' Moulder Creek. While waiting for the others, he plac-.i his staff agaJr;f;t a rock near the edge of the cliff and leaned against it. Either the rock gave way, or the staff slipped, and the unfortunate man was precipitated headlong. He fell a sheer 60 feet in one drop, and was then caught in a shingle slide which carried him, unconscious, a further 60 or 70 feet, but fortunately he brought up against a stout tawhine bush, which arrested his progress on the extreme edge of a further sheer drop of 120 feet, followed oy a steep descent of a thousand feet to the creek bed. One of the other musterers saw Mr. Ward fall and summoned the whole party, but it was impossible to reach H him from above, and they had to descend to the creek bed and their way up to where Mr. Ward lay in his precarious position. He was hauled to II a safer place, and then began a night- " mare march to bring him out. The de- ' scent to the creek-bed, lowering an improvised stretcher from one men to another, two and half hours, ' after which the stretcher-bearers—Messrs. John Jackson, Walter Jackson, Joseph Eeynolds andtW. Lane—were faced with a seven-mile trek down the rocky gorge, often up to their middles in the icy snowwater. They had to cross and re-cross the creek over 30 times, and it carrying a fair volume of water. In addition, many steep spurs had to be negotiated. The men became so cold that their hands lost all sense of feeling. Nearing the homestead Mr. J. Crow came oul and rendered welcome assistance, but the journey down the creek occupied over five hours and the party were thoroughly exhausted. Mr. Ward was brought into Blenheim in a motor-truck, arriving in hospital at 10 o'clock—just 12 hours after the accident. In addition to Lhe splendid work r r tr-) rescue party, Mr. Paul Reynolds put up

something in the i '. + ure of a record when Mr. Ward's ph, . \ was fir&i discoverer. The party had no matei U with which to construct a and Mr. Reynolds set out across the steep country for the camp six miles distant. Here he procured sacks and blankets and he was hack at the scene of the accident in under two hours.