SURFACEMAN KILLED.
(P.A.) DUNEDIN, This Day. When a face of shingle collapsed, Mr John Arthur Birtles, aged 47, a married man, a Taieri County surfaceman, was killed instantly yesterday afternoon. A companion who was in the pit with him was buried to the hips, but was not injured. -Ashburton Guardian, 13/5/1943.
SURFACEMAN'S DEATH
BURIED UNDER GRAVEL
The adjourned inquest into the death of John Arthur Birtles, aged 57, a surfaceman employed by the Taieri County Council, who was killed by a fall of gravel in the council’s pit on May 12, was concluded at Mosgiel yesterday, before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., sitting as coroner. Mr R. L. Fairmaid appeared for the relatives of the deceased, and Mr H. L. Cook watched proceedings on behalf of the Taieri County Council. Constable Phillips represented the police.
John William Powley, who was working in the pit with the deceased, and the council’s foreman, Robert Stanley Gibson, said that about 2 p.m. he heard Gibson call out, and saw that he was buried to the hips in gravel. Gibson said that Birtles was apparently buried, and witness, after a search, found him under about 18 inches of gravel.
Questioned by the coroner, witness said that he, Gibson, and Birtles were all men of long experience at the work. Together with the deceased he had, under instructions from the foreman, examined the face of the pit on the previous day. but had found no cracks in it.
Medical evidence was given by Dr J. P. Shaw, who said that death, which would be instantaneous, was caused by a fracture of the base of the skull.
The coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. The pit had been examined on the previous afternoon, he added, and it appeared to be safe; all the men working in it, moreover were experienced. It seemed, however, that the council should consider carefully whether, in future, extra precautions should be taken before excavations were made in the pit. -Otago Daily Times, 3/6/1943.
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