QUARRY CLIFF COLLAPSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 68, 22 March 1939, Page 6

QUARRY CLIFF COLLAPSES

ONE WORKER KILLED; TWO INJURED TWO .MIRACULOUS ESCAPES. [ Per Press Association.) TIMARU, March 20. One man was buried alive and two others injured, one seriously, when without warning, several thousand tons of rock and debris fell in a quarry at the Cave Lime Works, 20 miles from Timaru, this morning. The man who was buried alive was Eric Woods, married, who resided at Cave. James Gunn McVey suffered severe internal injuries and Marcus McVey, a brother, a dislocated shoulder and head injuries. Marcus McVey was working at the top of the cliff face 100 feet high when the face gave way. He gripped at the safety rope but missed and fell on top of the falling rock. Woods, who was buried, was working a few, feet up from the bottom of the cliff and was trapped beyond hope of escape. James McVey was working on a tractor scoop at the foot of the cliff and the tractor was hurled 20 yards across the flat and down a bank. McVey retained his seat until the tractor came to rest at the bottom of the bank when he was thrown a further 15 feet amongst some willows. When he was found he had a large limestone rock across the groin. A fourth man in the quarry. Alfred Kerr, escaped uninjured.