STEAM ROLLER TRAGEDY
DRIVER KILLED IN CAPSIZE STUCK TO POST TO LAST
Careering madly down York Place late yesterday afternoon, a 15-ton City Corporation steam roller capsized at the junction of Stuart and Albert streets, causing the death of the driver, Mr John Smith, a corporation employee, residing at 8 Islington street, Northeast Valley. Receiving shocking injuries when the heavy vehicle capsized, he died a few minutes after being extricated from the wreckage.
Outstanding thought in the minds of all people is the presence of mind and courage of Mr Smith in staying with the runaway machine and endeavouring to turn it up hill into Albert street. Had he abandoned the heavy steam roller when realisation came that it was irretrievably out of control, its headlong flight might have resulted in considerable death and destruction.
The late Mr Smith preferred to stay with the roller, although for him it meant certain death.
The tragedy occurred about 4.50 p.m. when the roller was returning from Ross street, Roslyn, where it had been working, to the City Corporation yards. Its tracks down the hill from Roslyn past the Robin Hood quarry are on the correct side of the road, but later when the machine apparently got out of control, they veered over to the wrong side of York Place. Possibly the driver took the roller across the road in an endeavour to get a better opportunity of turning the corner on the uphill grade into Albert street.
However, the speed of the lumbering vehicle was too great to negotiate the bend safely. The driver endeavoured to arrest its speed at the tram lines, for it reared in the air at the first set of rails, leapt the second line, and then, as it turned, capsized amid, a shower of sparks and steam. The skidding motion of the turn, when it bit deeply into the road to a depth of about 16in, caused the capsize and the snapping of the carriage holding the two split rollers in front. The unfortunate driver was pinned underneath the wreckage.
A passer-by, a returned Army officer, immediately went to the unfortunate driver's rescue, and, despite the heat of the fire box and escaping steam, managed to extricate him from the wreckage. Others rang for the ambulance, but the injured man died almost immediately.
It was fortunate that at the time of the fatality the roadway at this usually busy corner was free of traffic, nor was there any cable car to complicate matters. Had the position been otherwise the crashing steam roller would have caused great loss of life.
At this juncture it is impossible to surmise how the big roller became out of control. Its forward progress of a gradient is controlled by reversing the action of the steam. It was equipped with a holding brake, but this is not used for the purposes of braking as on a motor car.
This morning there was a medly of broken ironwork and pieces of roller scattered round the intersection. The front upper structure of the roller was completely stripped away and smashed to pieces, while all the front ironwork holding the heavy twin rollers in position was also smashed. The vehicle, in its crash, had turned round completely, with the broken nose of the boiler pointing towards the Technical School. Bitumen was dug out of the road in several places, and one of the rails on the set nearest York Place was heavily dented, and the outer flange was broken off over a length of about 6in.
Officials of the City Corporation engineering and works departments were busy this morning supervising the salvaging and removal of the wreckage. For this purpose two heavy power graders, a caterpillar tractor, and a steam roller were on the job. By the judicious use of these, together with wire hausers, the remains of the wrecked roller, comprising mainly the rear wheels attached to the boiler, were righted. The front of this wreckage was then jacked up and a stout pair of wheels placed underneath, to be towed away to the corporation yards.
MACHINE WITH A HISTORY. The wrecked machine was for many years known as Barnes's Baby, a crusher, which old identities will remember as being used extensively in the north end of George and King streets, and which was noted in those early days for the number of times it had to be dug out after subsiding beneath the level of the road.
It got its name from Mr J. Barnes, a cartage contractor for the.city. He became mayor of the city between 1885-86.
INQUEST OPENED. The late Mr Smith was a married man, 58 years of age. He was a returned soldier of the last war, and has two sons now serving with the forces. An inquest was opened at the city morgue this morning before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., the proceedings being adjourned sine die after evidence of identification had been given by Allan Jenkins, a brother-in-law- of the deceased. -Evening Star, 28/1/1943.
Heroic Roller Driver.
"It must be agreed that deceased could have jumped clear but instead he attempted to divert the course of the roller so as to avert injury or danger to pedestrians," said the Coroner (Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) at the conclusion of an inquest at Dunedin into the death of John Smith, a married man, aged 58, who was killed on January 27 when the steam roller he was driving got out of control and overturned at an intersection. Sergeant O'Carroll associated the police with the Coroner's remarks and said it was obvious that deceased was prepared to sacrifice his life to save others. -Manawatu Standard, 27/2/1943.
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