ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES
DROWNING FATALITY
George Roy McLeod, a single man, aged 25, whose mother resides at 257 Castle street, Dunedin, was drowned yesterday afternoon at 2.20 at the Waitaki Hydro Works. McLeod, who was engaged on one of the sluice gates, went to get a rope to secure an air pick and apparently he slipped from the ladder into the water. The river was running high, and McLeod was weighed down by his clothes and rubber thigh boots. He was sighted about 50 yards downstream and then disappeared. All social activities at the camp were postponed yesterday and search parlies were organised, but late last night the body had not been recovered. -Otago Daily Times, 1/9/1934.
STATISTICS OF BIG UNDERTAKING
SOME INTERESTING FIGURES (excerpt)
Cost in Money and Lives
The Dam Length, 1800 feet; length of spillway 1200 feet....
List of Fatal Accidents
Not many major engineering schemes have been carried out with an absence of fatal accidents. When it is remembered that the Waitaki Hydro Works have been in progress for six years and that much of the work has been done in places where a false step meant a plunge into the freezing cold water of a wide, swift, and deep river, it is not surprising that some of the workmen lost their lives. In fact, it is remarkable that there were only three drowning fatalities. Altogether there were seven fatal accidents and one death from heart failure. Minor injuries, of course, were numerous, but not more numerous than might have been expected.
The fatalities were as follows:
March 8. 1929. — G. Hoffman, drowned in river.
February 2, 1931. — G. Baxter, heart failure.
July 18, 1931. — J. Russell, fractured skull in fall against a truck.
May 20, 1932. — E. J. Solomon, struck by runaway truck.
April 24, 1933. — W. Falls, drowned in river.
August 3, 1933. — G. Todd and J. Muir, killed by fall of rock excavation.
April 23, 1934. — J. H. Woodgate, struck by runaway truck.
August 31, 1934. — G. R. McLeod drowned in river. -Timaru Herald, 27/10/1934.
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