MAN SCALDED TO DEATH

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1930, Page 3

MAN SCALDED TO DEATH

LOCOMOTIVE OVERTURNS RAILWAY DUPLICATION TRAGEDY VICTIM LEAVES YOUNG FAMILY.’ By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, July 23. Scalded by steam while pinned beneath an overturned locomotive on the railway line near Mahia at midday, Robson Mackwood, of Western Springs, received injuries from which he died in the Auckland hospital. R. Leigh, Papakura, Mackwoodte companion on the engine, was also scalded and bruised, but after receiving medical attention he was able to proceed home. Engaged on the duplication of the main line to Papakura, Mackwood and Leigh were operating a locomotive which comprised a donkey engine geared to tjie wheels of a truck. A load of filling had been emptied from a rake of nine trucks on a temporary line, and the return journey for another load had been commenced when the engine left the rails, overturned, and fell down the embankment. Besides the. driver, three of the workers were standing on the locomotive, AH except Mackwood managed to jump clear, but although Leigh avoided being pinned down, he, too, was caught by the escaping steam. Mackwood was pinned by one arm beneath the engine, from which a fierce jet of steam played over' his face and chest. In spite of the risk of scalds, other men on the line got close to Mackwood and dug him out from under the engine within a few minutes. Mackwood’s condition was critical, and he died in hospital eight hours later. He was 42 years of age. He was married and had a family of six, all under ten years of age.