The earliest recorded accident during the building of the Plimmerton to Pukerua section of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway (WMR) was in March 1884. Edgar Kneebone had his leg so badly broken when a large quantity of sand fell on him that a bone came through his moleskin trousers. After being examined by a doctor he was taken to Wellington for further treatment.

There was a serious accident involving dynamite in May that same year. Richard Dumphye and Robert Jenkins waited for some time well after a dynamite charge should have exploded. They had just started drilling out the tamping when the charge suddenly exploded and they were both blown some distance. A doctor was called from Johnsonville and the two men were taken by Cable’s coach to Wellington Hospital. The Evening Post reported (30 May 1884 p2) “One of them is only slightly hurt, being more discoloured than injured. The other is more severely hurt.”

In July 1884 Samuel Brown, who had the contract for the Pukerua to Paekākāriki section, had what was described as “an almost miraculous escape from a violent death.” (Evening Post 31 July 1884 p2). Just on dusk he was driving his buggy over the Paekākāriki Hill. As he began the descent he lost control of his horse when the reins slipped through his fingers. Before he managed to regain control one of the buggy wheels went over the edge of the road. Brown just had time to jump clear before both horse and buggy disappeared over the edge. The horse and buggy were recovered: the buggy was “pretty well smashed up” but the horse, amazingly, was uninjured.

The first tunnel was pierced by October 1884 and Samuel Brown was the first person to go through. Up to that time there had been no further accidents or mishaps but only two months later a worker named Daniel Scanlon broke his foot after rolling 50 feet down the bank onto the beach.

The most serious accident during construction of the railway occurred on Monday 19 January 1885. The heavy timber holding up the roof of No. 8 tunnel, the one nearest to Pukerua, suddenly collapsed. It happened so quickly that nine of the twelve men working in the tunnel only just had time to reach the safety of the section which had already been lined with brick. When they recovered from the shock they realised three workers were missing: Henry Lloyd from Lancashire, Peter de George from Switzerland and Matteo Tanzabel from Austria. John Laughton, the manager, was quickly on the scene and large numbers of men working on the contract gathered outside the tunnel. A doctor was summoned from Wellington by telephone. Laughton divided the men into shifts and they tried desperately to remove the large volume of rock which had fallen right up to the brick lined section of tunnel. Because of the difficult and dangerous nature of the work fresh gangs relieved the workers after short intervals. There was almost no sound except for the clicking of shovels and picks of the rescue party and the sound of adzes preparing timber to hold up the roof. Dr George Gore Gillon, the well-known resident surgeon at Wellington Hospital, was brought to Pukerua by the ss Tui.  At 2am on the morning after the accident a surf boat landed Dr Gillon on the beach where he was met by workers who took him to the scene.

When Dr Gillon arrived at the tunnel he spoke to 19 year old Tanzabel who was trapped but seemed quite cheerful considering his circumstances. Peter de George had died instantly and Henry Lloyd soon after. Tanzabel told the doctor that he was not in any pain although his legs and up to his waist were crushed by a mass of earth, rock and a piece of wood that had fallen on him. Only the upper part of his body and his head were free. He said he had not heard anything from the other two victims and thought that they were both dead. Dr Gillon felt that Tanzabel needed nourishment while he was trapped but it was impossible to get near him without dislodging more loose rock.

The rescuers built a narrow wooden-roofed tunnel supported by props. This was painfully slow and meticulous work as any false move would have brought more rock down. After some hours Dr Gillon was able to reach Tanzabel and gave him brandy with water and beef tea by means of a sponge. Tanzabel was lying on his chest with his mouth almost touching the floor. By this time he had been trapped for 22 hours. At last one of his fellow workers was close enough to Tanzabel, who by this time had become delirious, to begin gently removing debris from him. Sadly, as soon as he was freed, Matteo Tanzabel died, some 28 hours after the tunnel roof collapsed. Tanzabel was a victim of crush syndrome which occurs when a body has been crushed for a prolonged period. When he was released the toxins which had built up in his legs would have gone straight to his organs causing instant death.

On the Wednesday after the accident an inquest into the death of Matteo Tanzabel was held at the Paekākāriki Hotel with O P Lynch, Esq, J P, Acting Coroner. The inquest had been postponed as witnesses were still working to recover the bodies of Lloyd and de George. The workmen who had been in the tunnel were experienced miners and, in spite of the fractured nature of the rock, all said they felt safe working there. Two inspectors for the WMR, William Gott and Thomas Stevens, gave evidence that they had both been in the tunnel shortly before the accident and had no cause for concern. Gott thought that other tunnels in the contract were more dangerous than No. 8. An earthquake had been felt by witnesses a short time before, but this was not thought to have had any bearing on the accident. After a very short discussion the jury found “That the deceased, Matteo Tanzabel, met his death by a fall of earth in No. 8 tunnel on the Paikakariki section of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway, but that there was no evidence to show what was the cause of the fall by which deceased was killed.” (R24524544. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.)

Immediately after the last body was recovered all work on the contract was suspended.

A second inquest into the deaths of Lloyd and de George again heard from workers at the scene of the accident. William Forster, the Chief Inspector for the WMR also gave evidence that he had been in the tunnel a few hours before the accident. He considered the men in charge of shifts to be specialists in this work and he had never seen any negligence on the part of the works manager in this or previous projects. The verdict was “accidental death”. The following was added to the verdict: “That the jury recommend to the Government that a special inspector for the Paikakariki section of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway be appointed, to see that the safety of the men employed in the tunnels is properly secured, and that a copy of this rider be sent to the Minister of Mines.” (R24524544. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.)

Peter de George was 48 years old and had been a miner since he was 15. Henry Lloyd was 29 and had previously worked with his uncle in gold mines at Reefton. Matteo Tanzabel at 19 was the youngest and, according to the Public Trustee in Notices of Deceased Estates, had £25 when he died while De George and Lloyd left “under £1”. The very night before the accident Tanzabel had written a letter to his mother in Austria enclosing a bank draft. There is no memorial to the three men killed in the 1885 tunnel accident.

The contract had to carry on and three weeks later “a few good Tunnel Men” were invited to “Apply at once to the Manager on the works, Paikakariki or to Samuel Brown, Johnston-street, Wellington.” (Evening Post 17 February 1885 p3).

In May 1885 there was a near fatal accident when Edward Inez from Portugal was buried up to his neck while digging clay for the brick-making machine. A 15-foot-high face he had been working on collapsed suddenly. His workmates quickly dug him out and he was taken to hospital where his condition was initially given as exceedingly serious. However, a few days later he was reported to be progressing favourably.

Frederick Cameron, a paperboy from Paekākāriki, was the youngest person to suffer an accident during the construction of the railway. In March 1886 he had finished delivering the Evening Post to Pukerua and was running for the ballast train to hitch a ride home. Suddenly an explosion threw him violently to the ground by. He was painfully peppered with particles of copper from a detonator that had been dropped on the ground. All the copper was removed from his body and he recovered completely after a few days in bed.

Not so much an accident as a “near miss” which could have been serious occurred in April 1886 when four wagons from a goods train broke away and accelerated under gravity towards the tunnels. They sped through tunnels 8 and 9 before entering tunnel No.10 where James Hamilton was working. He had a narrow escape by having the presence of mind to lie down flat on the track allowing the wagons to pass over him. An even greater disaster was narrowly avoided in tunnel No. 11 where a large group of men were working. The runaway wagons were stopped when they collided with other wagons which were just outside tunnel 11.

by Ashley Blair