DRIVER KILLED.
TRACTION ENGINE TOPPLES OVER BANK INTO RIVER.
(By Telegraph. — Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Thursday. When a traction engine toppled into the river from the Stirling-Balclutha Road this morning the driver was killed. The victim was: — Mr. Frederick Plew, aged 57, threshing mill owner, of North Balclutha.
About 100 yards on the town side of the Balclutha Bridge, at a corner where the road curves round a cliff with the steep bank of the river on the other side, the traction engine apparently went over the bank and dropped about 20ft into the river, tearing away a wire fence guarding the river side of the road. It was found lying on its side by two men from the bridge who were engaged in repair work, the crash of the traction engine as it went over being heard.
The men got Mr. Plew out and artificial respiration was tried, but by that time he was dead. -Auckland Star, 1/3/1940.
SOUTH OTAGO
BALCLUTHA
Death of Mill Owner
The inquest into the death of Frederick Plew, mill owner, which occurred on Thursday, February 29 (when the traction engine he was driving went off the road and over a bank, into the Molyneux River) was continued at the Balclutha courthouse, before Mr A.E. Russell, district coroner. Constable J. D. Duff conducted the inquest on behalf of the Police Department. Dr Dodds said that on examining the body he found an extensive fracture of the base of the skull, which was the cause of death, and not drowning. The injury to the skull could have been caused if the deceased had fallen on the wheel of the traction engine, or alternatively if the trailer had struck him from behind. William Robert Ladbrook, a casual bridge carpenter employed by the New Zealand Railways, said that on the morning of the accident he was engaged at the north end of the Balclutha railway bridge when he saw the engine travelling slowly towards Balclutha. Following the accident, there were no signs that the edge of the road on the river side had given way. The engine seemed to have gone over when trying to negotiate the bend. The coroner returned a verdict that the deceased was accidentally killed when the traction engine he was driving went over the side of the road into the river, and that death was due to a fracture of the base of the skull. -Otago Daily Times, 6/3/1940.
Traction Engine Recovered
On Saturday afternoon the traction engine driven by Mr Frederick Plew when he met his death on February 29 by going over the bank into the Molyneux River was successfully recovered and dragged from the river on to the road. An ingenious arrangement of anchors and cables was used, and a tractor stationed on the hillside supplied the haulage power. Some 60 people had assembled to watch the final operation, and as the traction engine was hauled up the steep bank a lusty cheer rang out. It was found that the engine had suffered very little damage. -Otago Daily Times, 11/3/1940.
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