TRAGIC ACCIDENT

Te Puke Times, Volume 26, Issue 44, 4 June 1937, Page 2

TRAGIC ACCIDENT

Two Men Lose Their Lives BURIED IN FALL OF GRAVEL A tragic accident occurred at the Matata gravel pit on Wednesday morning when a slide of gravel buried two men. When the bodies were recovered life was extinct. The dead men are!—v Mr. Dan Lees, single, aged about 45 years, a returned soldier, who was in temporary charge of the ' quarry while the regular ganger was on holiday. Mr. E. L. Mason, aged about 30 years, married, with a wife and four children. After the Usual morning smoko Lees, with the assistance of Mason, were apparently filling the tracks to keep the lorries going, while another gang of men was clearing the pit of spoil. , When the gang came down for their midday meal there was no sign of Lees and Mason, and concluding that they had been buried by a fall of gravel, gave the alarm. With help arriving from all directions, a big gang finally cleared aw'ay the tons of gravel and found the bodies of both men near the truck.

Dr Appleby, of Wlxakatane, was in attendance, but could only pro* bounce life extinct. Mason had a broken neok and other injuries and ' Lees had died from suffocation, The pit is the property of the Whakatane County Council and has always been regarded as particularly safe. No aimilar' falls of spoil have ever occurred in it during the 20 yearn it has been worked.