UNDER A ROAD ROLLER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 187, 12 September 1914, Page 14

UNDER A ROAD ROLLER.

ATTEMPT AT. SUICIDE. NARSOW ESCAPE. "Tired of life," was the reason giren by a young man named Albert Bertie Clements for an attempt on his life this morning. The method he adopted was as shocking as it was novel. One of the City Council's road-rollers was pursuing its peaceful occupation on Moorhouse Avenue at 10.30 this morning. Clement approached it, and tried;. to throw himself under one of. the back wheels. It seems that he made three attempts altogether. The first two failed completely, but on the third his head and shoulders were gripped, and in another couple of seconds the life would have been ground out of him. • His insane behaviour had been observed by some men who were working on the teelgraph lines in the vicinity, and it was in response to their 'excited shouts that the driver stopped his machine. Clements was bruised about the shoulders, and sustained a cut on the back of the head. He was detained by the men on the road roller until Constable Eoss arrived and took him into custody. Subsequently he was brought before the Magistrate and committed to Sunnvside!

It is said that Clement's has plenty of money, but that he has been worrying during the past six weeks. It is also said that he made a-previous attempt to commit suicide by gas asphyxiation.