CRUSHED IN LIFT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20479, 4 December 1934, Page 12

CRUSHED IN LIFT.

Boy Travelled on Goods Hoist. HAD BEEN WARNED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, December 3. An accident in which a boy was fatally injured through being caught between the floor of a hydraulic goods lift and the side of the lift well in a Queen Street building on November 16 was the subject of an inquest before Mr F. K. Hunt, Coroner. The boy, Harold William Kyle, aged fourteen, who was employed in the building by Silknit (N.Z.), Ltd., lived in Grey Lynn. Evidence was given by John Rutland, an assistant in the shipping department of the firm, that he was abcut six yards from the lift when deceased was placing cans of rubbish in the lift, which was used only for carrying goods. Witness heard deceased call out “ Stop, stop! ” and he then noticed that the lift was rising and that deceased was jammed. Deceased had been placing the cans in the lift to take them to the ground floor. When witness reversed the lift, deceased was released and fell to the bottom of the well. On hearing a description of the lift, the Coroner commented that there was no roof. The lift was really a travelling platform. Boy Had Been Warned. Michael Connery, director and general manager of the firm, said that he had warned deceased, who had been employed about a fortnight, on the day before his death, about going into the lift. Employees had been warned repeatedly in this regard. Witness thought that deceased probably tried to scramble on to the lift when it was rising. Harry M’Gregor, machinery inspector, said that he found the controls of the lift in order. The lift was very slow and even if it had been started from above, deceased should have been able to alight. Deceased’s intention, witness thought, was probably to start the lift and to ascend in it, but thinking that he might meet someone in authority, he decided to alight. Witness said that there were in Auckland eighty-eight goods lifts of a similar type. The Coroner said the verdict would be that deceased was killed accidentally, although it was not possible to determine exactly how he met his death. He proposed to inspect the lift.