CRUSHED IN WORKSHOP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 673, 27 May 1929, Page 1

CRUSHED IN WORKSHOP

INQUEST ON RAILWAY WORKER’S DEATH WAGON FOULS HEATERS Pre3B Association WELLINGTON, Today. An inquest opened on Saturday in regard to the death at Petone of Henry Cooper, boilermaker, employed by the Railway Department, who was fatally injured at the Hutt Railway Workshops on his first day at work. Evidence was given that a truck “R” wagon, that had passed several Ames before in safety, fouled some k waters standing by the side of the track through a stanchion on one side of the truck leaning over at an angle. The heaters were in a row and, under instructions, had been given a clearance of at least two feet from the rails. When one fell it fouled the next and so on along the row, several men being caught. The heaters were about seven feet high. Cross-examined, a witness said deceased said the heaters were to be “two feet clear of the rails,” not “two feet clear of the truck.” The truck was hauled along by a wire rope from a traverser. The inquest was adjourned to Wellington.